Crop Circle Sharing Life
2023-2024
Graphic Design/
Pattern Experimentation/
Book Design/
This project investigates how the boundaries of informational safety distance can be defined. It was inspired by a personal experience of a friend who faced privacy violations in collective living environments, reflecting the increasingly blurred boundaries of privacy in contemporary society.
In an era of information overload, humans as social beings inevitably participate in the exchange and exploration of information. This process is often driven by curiosity, shaping individual awareness and perception. However, the exploration of information is not without limits. While public knowledge such as weather or general common sense is openly shared, private life, emotional needs, personal preferences, and unspoken thoughts require protection and respect.
Starting from a macro perspective of the information environment and gradually narrowing down to the individual level, this project examines how informational boundaries shift across different scales. Throughout this exploration, rational curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge subtly transform into a pure desire for perception, ultimately blurring the line between the public and the private.
Size: A4 (210 × 297 mm)
Pages: 408
Paper: Newsprint, Cotton Paper
Printed by: Paperwonder, Xiamen, China
The book is structured around proportional scales derived from real-life social privacy distances (0m / 45m / 120m / 360m / 750m). The content is divided into five layers: general distance, polite distance, private distance, intimate distance, and negative distance.
As the content gradually moves toward more private realms, the color palette within the book transitions from vibrant tones to pure black, symbolizing the decreasing relevance and personal significance of information. In sections involving private content, newsprint paper is used, referencing the visual and material characteristics of mass media that disseminate public information. This choice metaphorically reflects how private information is continuously uncovered, explored, and circulated, causing originally confidential personal information to become publicized and consumed in ways similar to public news.
Through the integration of proportional structure, visual language, and material strategy, the book aims to present how the attributes of information shift as it becomes increasingly accessed and disseminated. As information is approached and obtained through continuous exploration, its privacy gradually weakens or even dissolves. At the same time, the book reveals how curiosity drives individuals to repeatedly cross informational boundaries. However, the secrets and information obtained through such exploration often hold little genuine meaning for the individual. The overall structural arrangement of the book seeks to encourage viewers to reconsider informational safety boundaries and reflect on their own roles and responsibilities in the act of acquiring information.
The website design follows proportional relationships derived from real-life social distancing. Colors gradually shift from vibrant tones to black, symbolizing the gradual reduction of informational relevance and personal meaning. In sections involving private information, rhetorical questions challenge viewers’ curiosity, prompting reflection on the boundaries between curiosity and privacy.
Website Mockup Design
The video portrays contemporary individuals wandering along the boundaries of informational “crop circles,” capturing the process of attempting to cross and explore beyond these invisible limits.
Shot by DJI drone
Outdoor shooting
Location: Nanjing, China
Process & Experiment
Crop Circle Image Creation Process
Airbrushing techniques using a nail airbrush and oil-based pigments were employed, accompanied by experimental trials with a variety of materials and forms. Different crop circle patterns were carved and integrated with diverse shapes to develop layered visual compositions.
Title font design
Design: Xinyu Chen
Supervised by: Gong Yifan