Conditions of Seeing

How do different viewing conditions shape the way we perceive the same image?

This project explores how the same image can be perceived differently when it appears under different viewing conditions. Images rarely appear alone. They are framed by interfaces, layouts, and visual systems that shape how we look and how we interpret what we see.

To investigate this, three types of images were selected: an object image, a narrative image, and an iconic image.

Each image was placed across a series of visual environments, including television news, Wikipedia entries, museum displays, billboards, surveillance systems, Instagram, and meme culture.

By moving the same images through these contexts, the project examines how each environment guides attention and organizes perception through its own hidden rules.

In this book, these hidden rules are placed inside French fold pages. They are written in a code-like format and hidden within the folded layers of the page, only appearing when the reader opens them.

Visual conditions carry their own rules, shaping how the same image becomes understood.