Projections 1:
Cultural Fragments

2026
MA Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martins

Experimental \ Academic \ Print

This is the first project of the final term of my study at the course. We are asked to focus on how our inquiry projects to an audience or community. In otherwords, we need to see how our target audience might react to our projects, and maybe inform or affirm.

This project in particular documents on the changing nature of cultural fragments brought by people into new contexts, and explores how this connections (or disconnections) shape one’s identity.

Stamps representing the three evolution of the cultural fragment

What connects German creamy spinach to Indonesian chicken noodles, or a Korean sweet drink to styrofoam? Unexpected connections between things like these often emerge in intercultural encounters, especially for people who grew up navigating multiple cultures, such as Third Culture Kids (TCKs).

This project collects and documents translations of small “cultural fragments” shared by TCKs. Each postcard documents a fragment’s journey through three stages: the Original Fragment, an Equivalent Replacement of it found in the new culture, and its Perceived Reinterpretation by locals in a different cultural context.

Produced using RISO printing, the fluorescent layers highlight each fragment while visually suggesting the overlapping stories embedded within them. The postcards can be interlocked through a simple notching system, forming structures that reflect how identities are built from accumulated experiences and unexpected connections.

The work proposes that cultural fragments are not random, but interwoven threads that together form something meaningful.

In a world where identity is often reduced to fixed categories such as nationality, ideology, or heritage, this project instead explores how relationships between fragments of experience shape who we become. Within a Judeo-Christian understanding of God weaving each person together (Isaiah 44:2), the work proposes that cultural fragments are not random, but interwoven threads that together form something meaningful.

Using cross-cultural upbringing as a method, this project asks: how can translating personal cultural fragments reveal relationships between cultural perspectives rather than a single fixed meaning?

Postcards was the pre-internet chatting service. You had the front signifying where its from with and artwork depicting it. In this case, each a cultural fragment from respondents.

Preview of the back, stories to provide personal account and context, giving meaning to the images on the front. Stamps signifying the three categories accompany.

Installation structure, displaying front side

Back View

Stories readable from behind installation

Looking Ahead

The project celebrates the relationship between different cultural fragments from different perspectives, connections that make it possible for the house of post-cards to happen. These memories hold pleasant and wholesome emotions, but also painful, traumatic, and confusing ones too. Considering the ethical implications of cases of alienation or estrangements among peers due to assimilation processes, a new question could be raised: What is changed and even cut off from ourselves that made it possible to adapt and connect with a culture foreign to us?

Projections 2:
Cultural Fragments

Review the final version of this project that used interactive elements and gave a voice to these memories.

Previous Exploration

Below are iterations on structural systems and RISO printing exploring color combination and method.

Some more stuff

Featured Work

\¹Cultural Fragments \²Cultural Fragment Cards \³Saé’kin \⁴Majapahit \⁵JSO: From Us, to You \⁶The Apple Tree and Lillies of the Valley \⁷ARS SONI \⁸#VALUE! Unknown Quantities \⁹FIRES \ and more...