The project, Signals From a Stranger, explores how language and meanings are shaped by personal experience and context.
In modern society’s media environments, individuals are often encountered through fragmented and simplified representations. Within these conditions, language is often assumed to be shared and stable, while in reality it is continuously interpreted through personal histories and contextual frameworks. This discrepancy often leads to misunderstanding and the tendency to reduce other people into singular and flattened interpretations.
This project argues that meaning is not inherently contained within the language, but is actively constructed and negotiated between each individual. Understanding does not just occur automatically through shared words, but requires an ongoing process of interpretation and mutual adjustment.
Through a two-player cooperative analog card game system, Signals From a Stranger creates a space in which one of the players must communicate using limited forms of communication, such as hand gestures and facial expressions, while navigating differences in perception. By placing players in conditions where interpretation is the key but never fully resolved, the project reveals how meaning diverges and how communication depends on effort, empathy, and awareness of acknowledging differences between others and themselves.
The project foregrounds the instability of meaning and invites audiences’ reflection on how we interpret and understand others in our everyday lives.
In modern society’s media environments, individuals are often encountered through fragmented and simplified representations. Within these conditions, language is often assumed to be shared and stable, while in reality it is continuously interpreted through personal histories and contextual frameworks. This discrepancy often leads to misunderstanding and the tendency to reduce other people into singular and flattened interpretations.
This project argues that meaning is not inherently contained within the language, but is actively constructed and negotiated between each individual. Understanding does not just occur automatically through shared words, but requires an ongoing process of interpretation and mutual adjustment.
Through a two-player cooperative analog card game system, Signals From a Stranger creates a space in which one of the players must communicate using limited forms of communication, such as hand gestures and facial expressions, while navigating differences in perception. By placing players in conditions where interpretation is the key but never fully resolved, the project reveals how meaning diverges and how communication depends on effort, empathy, and awareness of acknowledging differences between others and themselves.
The project foregrounds the instability of meaning and invites audiences’ reflection on how we interpret and understand others in our everyday lives.
