Whole Other
Typographic installation exploring media consumption and the fragmented relationship between type, image, and meaning.
As a culture, we are bombarded with digital messages—curated, repeated, fractured, filtered, distorted, layered, and juxtaposed. Each message carries meaning, shaped by language and form. To expose this paradigm, this work utilizes randomly selected images from the 20 most trusted online media sources (according to a Pew Research survey) to reflect how we encounter them. Images are retrieved from remote servers, then organized and manipulated using Processing code to generate compositions independent of their original creation, context, and output.
Paraphrasing Koffka
Gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka reminds us that no single element exists independently; each signals a larger whole. Meaning and significance are never isolated but are essential to mutual understanding. Perception does not arise from separate points but from a constructed whole. Often expressed as “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” this idea suggests that the many have more value than the individual. More accurately, however, the whole represents an independent entity, entirely autonomous from its singular components.
Interdependent Layers of Meaning
Compositions are layered within typographic forms representing an interdependent system. Images and type juxtapose for the viewer’s consumption. Each step in the process redefining relationships between the single and the whole, providing each person with their own unique reading and interpretation of the singular and the whole.
