Reimagine the Forgotten Dynasty

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Project description

The image formation of Chinese paintings follows their own system of perspective methods, arrangement, and combination between natural and man-made environments. Scale, proportions and the angle of viewpoint change within one picture making it difficult to understand real aspects of geometry, layout and the relationship between built structures and landscape features. By analyzing the Chinese painting named “江山秋色圖卷” was created by 趙伯駒 at end of Sung period, and its narrative, I have studied the projective geometry of the painting and its objects transforming it into plan view. Thus, I have created a methodology to assess the construction of the painting and to give the right impression of the object's height, width, depth and position in relation to each other and within the overall landscape setting. This further allows me to speculate about the visual representation of three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface by exploring different relationships between the architectural elements and landscape features. Through the manipulation of their boundaries between exterior and interior, between public and private, between natural and man-made different configurations are generated in plan view as well as transforming it back into the Chinese painting frame of reference creating different compositions resulting in a change of narrative.