From Shadows, We Build
From Shadows, We Build is an exhibition and accompanying publication that brings together projects examining how design can surface difficult histories and imagine more just futures through care, speculation, and storytelling. Developed as part of Design and Futures, a graduate course structured around three temporal lenses—Palimpsest (Past), Vellum (Present), and Codex (Future)—the exhibition asks viewers to engage with histories of exclusion, oppression, and inherited trauma, and to consider how these legacies continue to shape the present. What began as an exploration of historical artifacts evolved into a collective inquiry that required both makers and audiences to step outside their comfort zones, confront discomfort, and sit with unresolved truths.
My contribution to the exhibition builds upon the unCOMFORTable truth and extends the work through digital storytelling, augmented reality, and documentation. The digital narrative opens with a text animation reinforcing the central idea that truth is often uncomfortable, before moving through archival materials related to “comfort women” that validate the reality of these traumatic events. Footage of viewers engaging with the stair installation, along with interviews capturing their reactions, becomes part of the narrative itself, foregrounding reflection and the co-creation of meaning shaped by the audience’s lived experiences. As an extension of the installation, I created an AR animation titled Hope, which brings the Statue of Peace to life through AI-generated imagery. When viewed through the Artivive app, the girl ages before the viewer’s eyes, gently fades away, and is replaced by a white butterfly—symbolizing healing, freedom, and the sculptors’ wish for peace in the victims’ afterlives.
As Managing Editor of the publication, I helped shape the catalog as a speculative archive that reframes the collective work into a shared vision of possible futures. Together, the exhibition and publication position From Shadows, We Build as both a record of engagement and an invitation, asking viewers to slow down, pay attention, and participate in the ongoing work of remembering, witnessing, and care, even when that work is uncomfortable.
SCAN WITH ARTIVIVE TO VIEW AR ANIMATION
