1. Course reading: Ahmed, S. (2017). Living a Feminist Life. Duke University Press.
Quotation:
“Use your feelings as a method.”
Annotation:
Sara Ahmed emphasizes the role of emotions as a method of thinking and research. This made me realize that in my project, blue is not just a light or a color—it is a way of feeling and entering the work. The emotional tone of blue becomes a method for shaping form and space, aligning with Ahmed’s call to let feelings guide our creative and critical choices.
2. Course reading: Ingold, T. (2013). Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture. Routledge.
Quotation:
“Lines are not just drawn, they are lived.”
Annotation:
Tim Ingold’s idea of “lines” as lived experiences rather than visual elements shifted my view of geometry in my work. In Blender, the shapes I create aren’t static—they guide light, flow, and perception. His idea helped me understand that my forms are not objects, but processes through which blue light becomes visible and meaningful.
3. Theme-related: Jarman, D. (1993). Blue. Film. United Kingdom: Basilisk Communications.
Quotation:
“The darkness is always there.”
Annotation:
Derek Jarman’s film Blue, consisting of a single frame of deep blue accompanied by a soundscape, is a meditation on time, memory, and the limits of vision. His treatment of blue as a sustained emotional and perceptual state parallels my approach to using blue light not as decoration, but as a prolonged experience. It reinforced my desire to explore the emotional “slowness” of blue through repetition.
4. Medium/method-related: Turrell, J. (n.d.). Light installations and spatial works.
Quotation:
“I’m interested in the thingness of light itself.”
Annotation:
James Turrell treats light as sculptural material with mass, presence, and even silence. This resonates strongly with my use of blue light in a controlled environment to reveal and shape form. His work encouraged me to think of blue not just as a color or a mood, but as something that physically sculpts space and defines perception.
5. Critical position: Goethe, J. W. von (1810). Theory of Colours. MIT Press, 1970 edition.
Quotation:
“Blue is a darkness weakened by light.”
Annotation:
Goethe’s poetic interpretation of blue as an illuminated darkness helped me reflect on the nature of absence and presence in my images. I began to see blue not as something applied, but as something revealed—an effect created through subtraction, void, or hollow. This idea directly informed my use of geometric voids and light as a way to make blue take form.
6. Wild card: Klein, Y. (1957). International Klein Blue (IKB). Various works and writings.
Quotation:
“My blue is the invisible becoming visible.”
Annotation:
Yves Klein’s use of blue as a vehicle for the immaterial and the spiritual gave me a strong conceptual anchor. His statement speaks directly to my project, where I don’t define blue, but let it emerge through light, void, and iteration. Klein helped me understand that blue can be a threshold between form and feeling, visibility and imagination.
Line of Enquiry
In this project, I am exploring the question: What shape is blue? Rather than defining blue as a fixed form or color, I use iteration to examine how blue light interacts with geometry, space, and perception. I created 100 cut-out shapes using Blender and placed them into a controlled lightbox environment with constant blue lighting. Through this process, I began to see blue not as a thing, but as a transition—an effect, a feeling, and a question. These images are not final designs, but records of perception, shaped by the presence of blue light.
I started this project by asking a simple question: What shape is blue? I wasn’t trying to define blue, but to explore how it behaves, how it feels, and how it transforms under certain conditions—especially under blue light.
Using Blender, I created 3D models and cut them with flat planes to generate unique silhouette shapes. These shapes were placed inside a virtual lightbox that I set up with a single source of blue light. I didn’t change the light throughout the process—I only changed the shape, again and again.
In total, I created and rendered 100 different forms under the same lighting condition. Each image became a way to ask a slightly different question about blue. What does it look like when it hits a curve? When it meets a void? When it passes through a hole?
The final outcome is not a design solution but a record of perception. These images were collected into a book, not to explain blue, but to let blue speak for itself—slowly, mysteriously, and in motion.
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