Unreal Engine 5
LED Screen
A Convoluted Portrait of Screens:
Real world >> images distorted by screen >> a virtual space >> back onto a screen
1 When we capture reality through a camera, the resulting images are not perfect replicas; they are framed representations.
2 These framed representations influence our perception when displayed on screens, as it only show parts of the original.
3 These photos are merged with 3d assets in my scene, influenced by initial real-world distortions and further digital manipulations.
4 The video is displayed back onto a screen, taking away some visual components, such as clarity, to complete the loop.
Each stage, from capture, display, to integration, introduces its own layer of transformation, shaping our perception.
Inspirations:
My idea stemmed from a curiosity about how real is the digital world and how screens might distort our perceptions.
The screen is both an electronic display (that display images or text) and a protective barrier (a physical structure that shield or separate spaces). Similarly, Anne Friedberg refers it as “a ‘virtual window’ that changes the materiality of built space”. When we look around, we can only see our physical surroundings. But with screens as portals, we are able to access another place and time.
Some other concepts that inspired me including:
Friedberg’s explanation, “the frame of the moving-image screen marks a separation”. Susan Sontag also states that a photograph is “a narrowly selective transparency”, these visual representations, no matter if it’s moving images or photographs—are not neutral reflections of reality. They are shaped by frames, both literal and metaphorical, that influence what is seen and how it is interpreted.
Process 1: Collection of Distortions
The collected images are sorted into different themes, representing forms of the world flattened through digital screens:1. Surveillance Cameras
2. Aging Walls
3. Printer Scans
4. Broken Screens
5. Google Maps
6. Binary Code
7. Textures of 3D Scans
8. Inverted Color Images
9. Digital Notes
Process 2: Distortions in Virtual Space
Each theme is composited into a room, with a total of 10 rooms.In the virtual space, I distorted the original images, including tiling, panning, projecting.
By applying these distortions, I am trying to blur images into a pattern, an abstraction, and a fragment. Slight movements in the textures also symbolize the transient nature of information on the screen.
Process 3: Back onto Physical Screens
In addition to virtually distort them, I extended the concept into the physical realm by displaying the video on an LED screen.
This introduced tangible distortions — such as pixelation, moiré patterns, and light intervention — resulting from the screen's physical properties.
This transition completes a cycle: from the real world to the virtual, and back to the tangible, flattened screen.