Alice Wong

Department: Information Design
Website: www.missalicewong.com

RECONSTRUCTING REALITY

My father was murdered in 1992 when I was 3 years old. During the initial stage of my thesis research I concentrated on finding out the true nature of the event. The truth would reveal itself through gathering data. As I researched archives and spoke to witnesses I found out they all have different perspectives. Their stories are framed in different ways. The more I learned about what happened, the more unlikely it became that I would ever find the truth. I then shifted my research to understanding how reality is constructed in our minds. I investigated how the different ways of storytelling contribute to our constantly changing perception of reality. I did not only consider the work of fiction writers and movie directors, but also the importance of storytelling in the reports and recollections of psychologists, forensic scientists, historians, detectives and family members. To represent all these perspectives into one design project, I developed a movie script in which the personal story is the red thread and a collage of different ‘voices’ invites the viewer to see how reality is constructed and reconstructed time after time. Storytelling can create a reality that engages audiences to feel urgency, a sense of threat or justice, or simply the need to buy something. Life is composed of stories and I want to help to make a better world by being an inspiring, informed and perhaps honest storyteller.