A World of Things
Hyewon Lee
My thesis explores the relationship between humans and objects by asking how meaning is shaped not within things themselves but through the systems and contexts in which they are encountered. Focusing on a single object whose position, scale, and form remain constant while its surrounding conditions shift, A World of Things examines how meaning emerges relationally through adjacency, sequence, and perspective, rather than residing in the object itself. Even identical objects can be read through different, sometimes conflicting narratives, suggesting that meaning is not fixed but continuously reshaped by context.
The photobook structure reinforces this inquiry through a series of controlled configurations in which contextual changes produce shifting readings without materially altering the object. Meaning accumulates across these variations rather than settling into a single, definitive interpretation. This tension between stability and instability foregrounds the gap between what persists and what changes.
Beyond the book, this project reflects on how contemporary systems, especially algorithmic and AI-driven environments, reshape the conditions under which objects are encountered and understood. Today, objects are often experienced first as images, data, and curated outputs within networked systems that pre-structure perception. By using AI-generated objects without prior cultural or historical associations, this work isolates relational meaning-making from inherited narratives.
A World of Things proposes that objects do not possess fixed identities. Instead, they remain materially constant while their meanings are continuously produced and reconfigured through the systems and contexts in which they appear.