This project begins with traces as a point of departure — not as signs of damage, but as elements that evolve across visual, physical, and conceptual layers. In Week 1, I explored the Zhang Menglong Stele through these layers, viewing erosion as a site of intellectual potential. In Week 2, I extended this idea, using traces as a starting point for broader reflections on the stele’s context, location, and materiality. Here, the trace served as a prompt for associative thinking rather than a subject of direct analysis.
I draw on a critical archival perspective to critique the inherent non-neutrality of archives, and to explore how fragmented and incomplete traces reveal the selective operations of cultural memory and political power. Through an archaeological methodology that examines the stele’s location, materiality, and textual fragments, I seek to reconstruct not a total historical truth, but a network of provisional meanings.
My project embraces intuitive, associative thinking, using graphic design as a method of analysis to trace connections between physical marks and broader historical narratives. I avoid the desire for completeness and instead cultivate an open field where fragmented traces provoke evolving interpretations. Offering multiple entry points for readers, I aim to challenge singular narratives and foster an ongoing, dynamic engagement with the material past.