Beyond the image: Decoding Emotions through Contemporary art

The scrolls below form an interactive art piece intended to create an intimate experience with each viewer. Historically, scrolls are both fragile and resilient, capable of surviving across time. To unroll a scroll is to unlock history as well as hidden truths. When you unroll one of these scrolls, you are entering another person’s emotional world—looking inward at what is often unseen.

Through interviews and conversations, I learned about each subject’s emotions and actions. For some, their outward behaviors are misleading in relation to how they feel; for others, their emotions and actions are closely aligned. After the interview process, I gave each subject creative freedom to express themselves through the photographic portion of the work.

While exploring these emotional responses, I also worked in a new medium: cyanotypes. I chose this process for its distinct blue coloration. Blue can evoke multiple, even conflicting meanings—calm and happiness, or coldness and detachment. This paradox mirrors the tension between emotions and actions, making it a fitting symbol for the work.