Description:

In recent years, increasing numbers of Chinese students have chosen to study abroad, and research indicates that they inevitably face challenges when living away from home. This means that Chinese international students can face significant pressure and alienating experiences that can lead to anxiety and isolation.

Wanderer draws on the historical, literary convention of the 羁旅 (exile) to consider the potential of a fictional 旅行皮箱 (portmanteau) to speak to the experience of loss and disorientation experienced by a Chinese student studying overseas. This project uses a fictional, first-person account and invented artefact design to humanise current research and elicit enhanced levels of insight and empathy.

In this study, “an exile” is defined as one who encounters disorientating foreignness while grieving for home. At the centre of the project is the creation of an old suitcase that belongs to an imaginary student in exile called Jiang Xiazheng. She has brought this with her to an allegorical country called Newcloudland. Jiang Xiazheng becomes emotionally, culturally and physically stranded (in exile) in a place far away from her homeland. The suitcase becomes a repository of ephemera but also a form of narrative portrait. Its multiple sections contain artefacts that she has accumulated while in exile. These include travel documents, journals, official correspondence, assignments, assessment sheets and postcards home that she never sent.

The designer draws on autobiographical experience as a substrate to build a fictional allegory. The combination of graphic design, creative writing and poetic inquiry, maps emotions on to the design of objects, and draws into physical form the loneliness and nostalgia that emanated from personal experience of exile. The designer has used a close-reading of type, language, texture, iconography, space, stock and technical details, to create authentic looking fictional artefacts.

In the passport design, the designer replicated security details, anti-counterfeiting systems and colour transitions. She also created entry and exit stamps and visa stickers for different countries. The use of linen textured stock, gold foil and laser cold lamination film replicates the look and feel of a real passport. A sense of nostalgic to national identity was developed in the interior design of the artefact. In her engagement with aisthetic (sensory) design, the designers explored material fatigue, varying paper weight, print quality, decay, texture and scent, to provide a direct and perceptible experiences designed to convey information and resonance.

The fictional student’s final university project – ‘Poems of Exile’ demonstrates a quiet, sophisticated design sensibility that becomes a subtle expression of solitude. Each poem appears on a separate card. As interior voices, the cards serve as bookmarks, interleaving sections of the document so that they may be taken out and read before being discreetly returned. Structurally, the work employs a concertina binding that accommodates the reclusive spaces for the poems and a linear order for the photographs.

These artefacts capture both nostalgia and artistic courage, and their design constitutes the voice of alienating experience.