Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Digital Media
First Advisor
Adela Goldbard
Second Advisor
Tucker Houlihan
Third Advisor
Chenlu Hou
Abstract
Digitization is not a modern invention. Derived from the concept of fingers, this mindset of packing information into quantifiable, interchangeable units sounds mechanical, yet eerily physical. Try to imagine: a ghostly hand with millions of fingers with the same length, likeness, and function. Under the worldview of Digital Narrative, we live in a digital simulation: everything is representable with quantifiable units, fluid across media. Yet under this spectacle of convenient abundance, something is missing. The Unknowables are replaced with arbitrary symbols, while the Uncategorizables are omitted. This is a framework that cannot accommodate human subtleties and complexities. One needs to flatten or quantify themselves to fit for mere existence. Thus, the acknowledgment of the Unknowables and the materialization of the Uncategorizables are challenges against the rigid grids of the Digital Narrative. While the negation of the current system is not the end, I am on a path of exploring the new post-digital and post-human cybernetic systems that house and incentivize complex human interactions as opposed to waiting for an interchangeable individual to feed the algorithm loop with the superficial binary or coordinate inputs.
Domestic Travelers aims to create a cybernetic system that combines digital and analog media, enabling two individuals to experience the lifespan of a relationship through possible collaboration, confrontation, compromise, deception, and sacrifice, using non-performative movements and sound. The project consists of three interconnected systems: the hidden soundscape that addresses the illusion of one continuous entity with constant collaborative movements (Undercurrent), a horizontal interface in the ambiguous form between a dining table and a switch with a pair of long strings which two individual can pull for control, communication, and exploration (Garden), and a vertical interface narrating a journey through digitally simulated space under physical influences (apart-ment). All three sections are intermingled through the discussion of chance, constant movement, and interpersonal power dynamics.
This interactive system is created physically with wood, metal, cast silicone, acrylic, and organic materials, allowing individuals to communicate, compete, and collaborate with open-ended possibilities and space for skill improvement through practice, as well as digitally with Unreal Engine 5 and Arduino sensors, unfolding a mental expedition through the simulated digital spaces where the domestic environment and wilderness overlap and bleed into one another.
Recommended Citation
Wang, Hanyi, "Domestic Travelers: Transparent Machines, Hollow Bodies" (2026). Masters Theses. 1571.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1571
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