Social media is the most densely populated arena of contemporary social interaction, where images transform from “objects to be viewed” into “scripts to be imitated.” I hope to reveal, through simulation and structural analysis, how images compress public social behavior and regulate public identity by establishing a visual system. If contemporary visual culture has become a behavioral code, compressing complex social practices into identifiable and executable templates of visual narratives, can design become a tool to disrupt this system?
Can we design “reverse scripts” based on images, revealing the labor, emotional burdens, and social pressures behind visual identity?
Can we offer a small but powerful resistance to the order of images through “misplaced imitation” and revealing the “backstage mechanisms”? Can we construct new interactive interfaces to make the decision-making paths behind staged photos visible again?
From “what images do,” to “how images are manipulated,” to “design breaking the script of how images operate,” I am more concerned with how design can become a disruptive mechanism than simply presenting how images shape us. Whether through fictional narratives, interactive systems, behavioral choreography, or interface experiments, I want to explore how to disrupt the recurring logic of “desire” within the contemporary visual identity system of the information society.
Therefore, next semester, I will attempt to answer the following questions using the language of visuals: Can graphic design transform images from a “tool of compliance” into a “tool of critique”? In this image-driven culture that demands constant “performance,” can design re-empower individuals with a degree of agency?
Leave a Reply