Date of Award
Spring 5-31-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Graphic Design
First Advisor
Kathy Wu
Second Advisor
Tycho Horan
Third Advisor
German Pallares Avitia
Abstract
Boundaries shape our lives and identities. The tangible presence of boundaries becomes a medium for engaging with the world—such as who occupies a space and how, or what tools are deemed valid in a design process. These boundaries aren’t always visible; they’re embedded in systems, habits, and assumptions that shape how we move, create, and are recognized. They extend far beyond fixed geographies and the specific positions we occupy within them.
Transplanting is the process by which things are moved or move across boundaries in hopes of being planted, finding a place to stay. Though it can be a search for home, belonging, and rootedness from one perspective, transplanting can also connote displacement and conquest. I engage with transplanting as a form of interaction with systems of enclosure and boundedness, deploying it as a more than metafore across a range of spatial, historical, political, and aesthetic contexts. In this thesis, I engage with transplanting as a noun, adjective, and verb, organizing my projects into three sections: Transplant, Transplant(ed), and Transplant(ing).
I am a Transplant. I dwell in flux where displacement breeds adaptation, and every gesture demands reinterpretation. In this section, I explore my own relationship to being a transplant. These projects reflect on how my experience as a transplant has shaped my work and experience.
Transplant(ed) collects projects where I take on the role of an observer, noting the ways borders as well as border crossings structure reality. Moving from one place to another, I frequently observe how boundaries—physical, cultural, or social—are defined. These definitions shift depending on my positioning and perception, significantly influencing the dynamics between communities.
Transplant(ing) is an active, recontextualizing strategy for designers who straddle multiple identities and worlds. Informed by various conditions, I perform actions as a designer, whether extracting visual elements from unrelated contexts, applying external structures to different media, or bridging conflicting situations.
The act of Transplant(ing) creates a dialogue out of dualistic oppositions. These projects show how it is more than just relocating elements, it is a transformative interaction that blurs and redefines boundaries, creating a liminal space for new meanings and connections to emerge. In this in-between, I find fertile ground for design—where friction sparks insight, and the unfamiliar becomes generative.
Recommended Citation
Yoon, So Jung, "Transplant Transplant(ed) Transplant(ing)" (2025). Masters Theses. 1522.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1522
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