Palimpsest: Desired Lines
Yixiao Zhao
Palimpsest: Desired Lines is an ongoing project dedicated to the intricate interplay between artificial urban infrastructure and the natural destructive cycles that surround it. Current infrastructural ruination is of the future, but implies a past. As such, this project unfolds as an exploration of multiple temporalities and an open-ended future. It contemplates the constant tug-of-war between decay, ruination, and manufactured works, framing it as a continual dance of becoming.
The term "palimpsest" is used to encapsulate this periodic yet additive evolution. At its core, this exploration navigates the tension and unravels the "palimpsest," serving as both a metaphor and a visual expression.
The photographs serves as the foundational base material from which many iterations derive. The concept finds tangible representation through print, sculpture, and digital media. The oscillation between various stages of city infrastructures is mirrored in the iterative nature of the printing process—shifting, elusive, subject to decay, and eventual restoration.
In parallel, the digital realm serves as a fundamental canvas, employing existing design tools and embedded algorithms to generate overlapping patterns and textures. This digital outcome, echoing the iterative principle of the print medium, becomes a rich playground for the exploration of possibilities in image-making and typography.
The project finds its way into a book form, This book’s structure implores the reader to consider the transformative potential inherent in every stage of an object and environment—countless ways to break free from reliance on mnemonic systems and sequential presumptions.