Shijia Lin

This work is based on the ontological idea of creating a one-way mirror space installation called Gaze and Absence as the graduation project of the Digital Media Art major, which takes ‘viewing’ as the core, and refers to the theoretical perspectives of phenomenology, existentialism and post-structuralism to analyse how viewing shapes our perceptions of reality, self and power relations. The installation consists of a one-way mirror divided into two parts. The installation is divided by a one-way mirror into two contrasting spaces, ‘The Viewed Everyday’ and ‘The Projected Self / Unseen Realm’, which create a sense of oppression and illusory introspection of the scrutinised everyday by arranging everyday objects, sensory elements, and introducing surveillance cameras and monitors. By arranging everyday objects and sensory elements, and introducing surveillance cameras and monitors, the work creates a mirror space of oppression and illusory introspection, where the audience travels through the space, watching their own mirrors as well as the real-time surveillance images, an interactive experience that can lead to reflections on ontological and social issues such as‘gaze and absence’, the real and the illusory, the subject and the other, and power and discipline. The work relies on the spatial medium to create an experiential ‘field of thought’ , presenting the complexity of the act of viewing and the existential situation in the context of contemporary surveillance.