Short statement
This project explores a main question: how do humans understand unknown entities when existing perceptual and cognitive frameworks begin to fail? I focus on the dual role of images in this process—as both tools for cognition and mechanisms of misdirection. Methodologically, I use parametric generation (noise, density, fluctuation, and light) to construct 100 fictional deep-sea organisms, organized within a catalogue structure. These are classified according to four common cognitive tendencies in human perception, such as the reliance on faces, centrality, and stable forms. Through iterative development, I introduce interference by embedding anthropogenic noise and real-world objects into the generative system, placing the images in a state between recognition and ambiguity. Rather than representing the organisms themselves, the images function as records of how cognition is constructed and breaks down, revealing how understanding is shaped through the interplay of prior experience and perceptual limitations.
Images are never neutral. They can function as evidence, but they can also mislead. As seen in visual materials related to climate change¹, images are used on the one hand to persuade the public of its reality, while on the other hand, they are equally mobilized to generate doubt and denial. This contradiction reveals a deeper issue: images do not directly present the world, but are always embedded within particular selections, frameworks, and positions.
When humans encounter the unknown, understanding rarely begins from the “unknown” itself, but rather from the “known.” We tend to search for familiar structures within what we see—eyes, faces, symmetrical bodies—as entry points for interpretation. While this mechanism provides efficiency in everyday cognition, it exposes clear limitations when facing unfamiliar systems: we are not truly seeing things as they are, but continuously matching them to pre-existing experience.
However, what images provide is always only a fragment. Whether in photography, drawing, or data visualization, they capture only partial information within complex systems. Reliance on a single image risks mistaking the partial for the whole. Only through multiple perspectives, temporal sequences, or the layering of different types of information can a system approach a more comprehensible state. In other words, understanding does not arise from a single image, but from the relationships between images.
Photographic theory further suggests that images do not need to conform to a single narrative. Photographs can construct a non-linear, fragmented, and recursive temporality, allowing multiple narratives to coexist without privileging any predefined notion of “truth”². Within such a structure, meaning is no longer transmitted unilaterally by the author, but generated through the arrangement, classification, and viewing of images. Narrative, therefore, need not be complete; it can exist as organized fragments.
This provides a methodological shift for the project: rather than attempting to “explain” unknown organisms, it constructs a system that can be read but not fully resolved through classification, arrangement, and the establishment of visual rules. The catalogue thus becomes a crucial form—it promises order, yet simultaneously reveals the violence and limitations of classification. When artificial and biological entities are juxtaposed, hybridized, and renamed, the catalogue ceases to be an objective record and instead becomes a tool for producing reality³.
At the same time, studies of sensory systems reveal another layer of limitation. Humans tend to rely on vision to understand the world, yet biologically, perception extends far beyond it. Electromagnetic sensing, echolocation, and pressure detection constitute entirely different worlds of experience⁴. This suggests that what we perceive as “form” may simply be the result of a particular sensory condition.
If an organism does not rely on vision, does its “body” still need to be defined by a clear boundary? If perception occurs across a field rather than within a specific organ, does the concept of an “individual” still hold? In this project, I generate deep-sea organisms by controlling parameters such as noise, density, oscillation, and light, attempting to simulate states of existence under different sensory conditions. However, this simulation does not aim to reconstruct reality, but to expose a fundamental condition: any visual outcome is a projection of human perspective.
This is further reinforced through an understanding of image-generation mechanisms. The camera is not a passive recording device, but an algorithmic system that extracts signals from noise⁵. Image production is effectively the selection and compression of vast amounts of uncertain information. This reframes “seeing” as a constructed process rather than a direct experience. Accordingly, the introduction of noise in this project is not merely an aesthetic choice, but a methodological one: it reveals how images are formed under instability, and how understanding breaks down under interference.
This breakdown has real parallels in marine ecology. Research shows that increasing human activity has made ocean environments significantly noisier. Species that rely on echolocation, such as sperm whales, struggle to detect prey in such conditions, while squid that once inhabited shallower waters are forced to migrate deeper due to their increased detectability through sound waves⁶. In this process, sensory systems and environmental conditions interact, driving significant morphological transformations. Evolution, therefore, is not only a response to environmental change, but also to shifts in sensory conditions.
At the initial stage of the project, I attempted to construct representations based on how these organisms might perceive the world, rather than how they appear from a human perspective. However, this approach quickly revealed a paradox: any attempt to imagine “non-human perception” inevitably relies on human projection. In other words, I was not accessing their world, but fabricating a hypothetical “other” grounded in human assumptions. This strategy ultimately reinforced, rather than escaped, an anthropocentric framework.
As a result, in the first week of exploration, I shifted to explicitly presenting these organisms as they might appear within a human visual framework. The images were deliberately constructed to suggest recognizable structures, inviting viewers to identify, classify, and interpret them. Viewers are led to draw comparisons with known species, often forming speculative narratives around them. However, these organisms are ultimately revealed to be non-existent, and their forms are not as stable or coherent as they initially appear. This process exposes the extent to which human understanding of the unknown depends on existing visual and cognitive references, as well as how images actively guide interpretation.
In the second week, I introduced the dimension of interference. Noise—understood both as a visual and environmental condition generated by human activity—was incorporated as a parameter affecting the formation and perception of these organisms. At the same time, elements from real, existing objects were composited with these fictional entities, creating hybrid images that oscillate between recognition and ambiguity. These images are neither purely fictional nor documentary; instead, they occupy an unstable middle ground. Through this strategy, the image is no longer a representation of an object, but a site of distortion, misreading, and reconstruction. This further challenges the reliability of visual representation and raises a central question: when established perceptual systems fail, how can we begin to understand the existence of something fundamentally unfamiliar?
Reference list
1. Hui , W. and Chun, K. (2017). Accumulation – Wendy Hui Kyong Chun – On Patterns and Proxies. [online] E-flux.com. Available at: https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/accumulation/212275/on-patterns-and-proxies.
2. Lister, M. and SLUIS, K. (2013). The Photographic Image in Digital Culture. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
3. Nova, N. (2021). BESTIARY OF THE ANTHROPOCENE : hybrid plants, animals, minerals, fungi, and. S.L.: Onomatopee.
4.Yong, E. (2022). An Immense World. Vintage Publishing.
5. Steyerl, H. (2024). Proxy Politics: Signal and Noise – Journal #60. [online] E-flux.com. Available at: https://www.e-flux.com/journal/60/61045/proxy-politics-signal-and-noise.
6. Lawrence, C.S. (2024). The Evolution of Echolocation | Smithsonian Ocean. [online] ocean.si.edu. Available at: https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/marine-mammals/evolution-echolocation.
Annotated Bibliography
1. On Patterns and Proxies
This article suggests that images are used both to persuade the public of the reality of climate change and to fuel skepticism and denial, revealing their inherent political dimension—how certain images are captured, framed, and interpreted. When considering the relationship between an image and what it represents, we often rely on familiar visual frameworks, subconsciously searching for similar objects or scenes in order to understand something new. The problem is that any image only captures a partial perspective of a system. A more complete understanding requires multiple viewpoints or the integration of other forms of information.
2. The Photographic Image in Digital Culture
This book argues that photographs construct a non-linear, fragmented, and recursive sense of temporality, allowing multiple narratives to coexist without privileging any predefined notion of “truth.” Narrative, therefore, does not need to be explicitly stated. Instead, a photograph can convey meaning through its specific perspective, offering a fragmented yet interpretable narrative. In other words, by carefully arranging viewpoints, sequences, classifications, and captions, it is possible to construct alternative narrative structures and meanings.
3. BESTIARY OF THE ANTHROPOCENE
This book raises the question of what it means to live in a hybrid environment composed of both organic and synthetic matter. It asks what new forms of life are emerging on our planet in the early 21st century. By classifying and annotating these new organisms, it presents a visual catalogue that merges artificial and biological entities. Inspired by this approach, I aim to adopt a similar taxonomic format to engage viewers, using visualization to present the possible states and forms of organisms across different categories.
4. An Immense World
The book also points out that, beyond touch, sight, and smell, some animals perceive the world through electromagnetic sensing. This reveals the limitations of human perception and suggests a much richer world beyond vision. If organisms do not rely on sight, how might their forms be structured? And how would humans interpret beings that exist beyond our perceptual range? By manipulating different parameters, I generate speculative deep-sea organisms shaped by alternative sensory systems. Through a human perspective, I attempt to simulate how their perception shifts, how interference occurs, and how bioluminescence emerges—while exposing the limits of such a perspective.
5. Proxy Politics: Signal and Noise
The article explains that images produced by cameras are, in fact, the result of algorithmic processes. Camera sensors identify patterns from vast amounts of noise to produce what we perceive as images. This is a process I had not previously considered. Simulating how humans rely on machines to construct images opens up an interesting direction. It may be possible to generate images from noise or allow noise to distort them. Exploring how different algorithms or parameters shape image production could also help reveal how computation influences visual representation.
6. The Evolution of Echolocation | Smithsonian Ocean
This article examines how sperm whales use highly specialized echolocation to hunt squid in the deep sea. They once relied more heavily on vision, but increasing human activity—such as shipping and ocean exploration—has made the marine environment significantly noisier. For sound-sensitive toothed whales, this noise pollution interferes with their ability to detect objects, contributing to population decline. Meanwhile, squid that once inhabited upper ocean layers have been forced to move deeper, as their acoustic detectability made them more vulnerable. This downward migration and adaptation have led to significant morphological changes over time.