i remember not remembering (2023)
i remember not remembering is an exploration of memory through the intertwined senses of sight and sound. Memories are not still photographs but living tapestries, woven from stories untold, textures felt, emotions held close, and fragments of experience that shift and shimmer over time. They are fluid, elusive, yet deeply influential, shaping the person we become.
This body of work presents the process of one project leading to another, a journey creating relationships between personal recollections and senses of sight, hearing, and smell.
Mentor: Kristian Bjørnard
Software: Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Aero
Photos by Chloe Vo
publication
sense of sight and hearingThe project begins with Tube, a typeface born from the tall, narrow tube houses that line the streets of my childhood neighborhood. These narrow, stacked homes form a distinct vertical pattern, which I translated first into letterforms and then into three-dimensional architectural shapes. Through these transformations, language itself becomes a structure, an imprint of place. From these shapes, I rebuild my old neighborhood, piecing together memories that surface imperfectly, altered by time and perception. The cityscape spells out my former address, a soft echo of a home that is no longer mine, but forever imprinted in my mind.
Sound weaves through the work as an emotional lifeline. Certain noises hold the power to collapse years: an unexpected melody, the distant bark of a dog, or the stubborn crow of a neighbor’s rooster can unlock moments long buried. Layered ambient sounds, traffic threading through narrow lanes, music once played in my mother’s coffee shop, transform into an emotional map, guiding me and the viewer back to a place that exists beyond time.
This space is a liminal one, neither anchored firmly in the past nor present, suspended in the tension between reality and memory, between fact and feeling.
AR EXPERIENCE
An interactive AR experience invites viewers to step beyond the screen and into this dreamlike world, carrying its fragments into their own spaces, and perhaps, into their own memories.The audience can either use the provided iPad or scan the code with their own phone (compatible with iPhone X and newer models, Samsung Galaxy 10+, Samsung Galaxy S21 and S20, and Pixel 4XL).
sense of smellThe Glance of Smells explores olfactory semiotics and the deep connection between scent and memory. It translates smells from personal recollections into abstract shapes defined by color and texture. Instead of relying on conventional associations—like blue for water or brown for soil—the project assigns new meanings based on emotions and memories, acknowledging that perception varies, especially for those who are colorblind.
Each abstract object represents a smell linked to a person, place, or moment from my life, with further details expanded in the publication. The poster’s distorted typography and material choices reflect the blurriness and imprecision of memory itself. Installed as a two-layer loop, the work invites viewers to roll a transparent sheet over static text, revealing shifting smell-objects on the other side. This looping mechanism symbolizes the infinite process of memory: information continually moving back and forth within the mind.
Scrolled posters’ demonstration