Touching “Is-ness”: Countering Alienation Through Perception and Emotional Awareness

Abstract

Every experience and emotion I’ve experienced is like data inscribed into a vast personal database, influencing my every action and decision. In moments of stillness, I find myself revisiting and dissecting these memories, questioning what has shaped my choices and has me to become who I am today. I choose not to analyze memory from existing scientific research and social structures, but rather to explore memory from personal perception and feeling. I believe to fully experiencing memory is a way to bring emotional awareness to reality. Through collage and reconstruction, I strive to create the possibility of existence for those unrecorded spaces and memories, seeking a space to express feelings denied. This allows moments that may have been forgotten to re-enter the field of vision, granting the right to express hidden personal stories. These works are not a retelling of the past, but a reconstruction of past perceptions. They respond to my confusion about “love” and “identity”, and also challenge the discipline of emotions under capitalist logic.