Sarah Kim
Stay in Loop
Prompt: An independent, research-based thesis project focused on making connections between the self and the world. Students develop work grounded in sustained investigation of a social, visual, cultural, or historical phenomenon. Emphasis is placed on how meaning is constructed through representation–how phenomena are depicted, mediated, and circulated through images, media, and artistic forms.
In this project, I have explored accelerated image consumption and doom scrolling in our society. By adopting the structure of a mobile, the work aims to visualize the ceaseless, continuous flow of media consumption. It draws attention to the paradox that as media advances, users tend to become more passive in their reception of content—a concept metaphorically expressed through the structural motif of a baby mobile. The letter “I” in the center, which seem just part of component of a mechanical core, represents both the system and the user themselves. The surrounding letters — “D, Z, Z, Y” are abstract patterns of each reknowned social media, indirectly showing how these experiences are fragmented and constantly repeated in human nature. As the mobile rotates, information flows without pause. Therefore, I would like to critcize who people unconsciously pulled into the cycle of this ceaseless loop of image consumption.