Four Steps of Representing a Chinese Handscroll

(this project was presented as part of Ling Fan's final master thesis at Princeton University, School of Architecture, 2007)
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Step 0_Unrolling
Normally, Chinese handscroll is unrolled from right to left and viewed only one section at a time (one end of the scroll is rolled up as the other end is unrolled). By manipulating the two ends of the scroll simultaneously, the spectator is free to move back and forth in the composition.
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Step 1_Engaging
Spectator is fixed, the scale of environment changes to represent the degree of engagement of spectator. Formless elements map the transition.
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Step 2_Lingering
The environment is synchronized according to the movement of spectator. One figure, supposedly the painter, appears several times on the handscroll, through which a movement image of spectator is traced and in which narrative (of the repetitive figure) organizes the events.
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Step 3_Intervening
Spectator’s motion, movement and stillness , distorts the environment. By changing the obliqueness between adjacent buildings, the environment represented is therefore intervened by the spectator. Temporal focus shifts from coherence and chronology to the indeterminacy of simultaneous events.