How can the physical properties of light as a carrier of information be used to create installations that help a scientifically inclined audience reflect on the psychosocial implications of truth and reality?
Light has long symbolised truth. Buddhism seeks “enlightenment,” and Plato’s allegory of the cave says true knowledge comes from turning towards the light.
Discoveries in optics have repeatedly expanded our understanding of reality. Al-Haytham overturned Plato’s idea that the eye projects vision, showing that we receive light. Newton challenged Aristotle’s view of white light as pure, leading to spectroscopy. Young’s double-slit experiment showed light behaves as a wave, and Planck and Einstein revealed wave-particle duality, a quantum reality both complex and contradictory.
Just as each discovery exposed the limits of what came before, our own beliefs are only partial views of a larger picture. This led me to research the polarised thinking fuelled by social media. In a post-truth world shaped by algorithms and echo chambers, I wanted to highlight humility in knowledge. I can’t change anyone’s mind, but I can prompt them to reflect on their beliefs and consider other perspectives.
Light has long symbolised truth. Buddhism seeks “enlightenment,” and Plato’s allegory of the cave says true knowledge comes from turning towards the light.
Discoveries in optics have repeatedly expanded our understanding of reality. Al-Haytham overturned Plato’s idea that the eye projects vision, showing that we receive light. Newton challenged Aristotle’s view of white light as pure, leading to spectroscopy. Young’s double-slit experiment showed light behaves as a wave, and Planck and Einstein revealed wave-particle duality, a quantum reality both complex and contradictory.
Just as each discovery exposed the limits of what came before, our own beliefs are only partial views of a larger picture. This led me to research the polarised thinking fuelled by social media. In a post-truth world shaped by algorithms and echo chambers, I wanted to highlight humility in knowledge. I can’t change anyone’s mind, but I can prompt them to reflect on their beliefs and consider other perspectives.
How and why do we believe something is true?
Is reality objective, or do we all live different truths?
What if the carrier of truth itself only showed us a reflection of our existing beliefs?
And what happens to these truths when we only perceive them through our screens?
Light, the Carrier of Truth is an interactive installation that uses light and its physical properties as a medium and a metaphor in order to discuss the fallacies of polarised thinking and objective truths, especially pervasive in social media.
Technical Development
DMX Lights
Creative Computing
Sound Design
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The installation consists of three separate interactions, each using a distinct physical property of light: complementarity, polychromatism, and the Samoiloff Effect (additive and subtractive colour mixing), accompanied by a narrative.
Together, the three installations create a layered journey from singular perception to multiplicity, uncertainty, and situated truth. When experienced together, the installation asks the viewer to move between certainty and ambiguity, encouraging them to recognise that truth is not only something to be seen but also something to be questioned through the conditions that make it visible.
The Prism: When the “phone” is tilted up, a white light is visible on the back wall. When tilted down, the light shines through a prism, casting a rainbow on the wall. This symbolises that when observed through the lens of social media, reality can seem uniform and singular. However, when we put the phone down, we find a spectrum of individual experiences and truths.
The Light-Reactive Mural: The central mural is printed with layers using Cyan (Scientific Reality), Magenta (Personal/Spiritual Reality), and Yellow (Socio-Cultural Reality). When Red, Green, or Blue light is shone on it, one of the printed colours pops out clearly while the others fade. Each of the three phones emits coloured light from a moving-head spotlight that tracks the viewer’s head movements, signifying observation.
The Wave and the Particle: When the phone is down, a spotlight creates an expanding waveform on the wall to symbolise the wave nature of light. When the phone is tilted up, the wavy light turns off, and a spotlight shines a circular beam onto the wall, symbolising a particle. This serves as a metaphor: the reality we see through our phones appears objective, but in reality, it is subjective to individuals.
Technical Development
DMX Lights
Creative Computing
Sound Design
Arduino & Physical Computing
Physical Build
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Illustration
Poetic Narrative
A three part abstract poetic narrative inspired by manifesto language that urges radical questioning and compassionate disruption.
The Narrative was inspired from works by various philosophers, scientists and phychologists.
The audio narrative is triggered when the audience interacts with the interactive touchpoints.
Experiments
An experimental film exploring how the physics of light can teach us about truth and humility.
Prototype of an interactive installation on that uses light as a medium and a metaphor in order to discuss the fallacies of polarised thinking, pervasive in social media.
Installation Photos
The Installation Was displayed at the 2026 Graduate Show for the Royal College of Art, London.
