Studio Project
Major Studio 1 | PGTE 5201
MFA Design & Technology
Parsons School of Design | The New School
Advisor: Harpreet Sareen
The Loops is a collection of digital artworks that explore the cycles and repetitions woven into everyday life. These works visualize the tension between involuntary loops, patterns we find ourselves caught in, and the chosen thresholds where we assert meaning and agency.
This project was born from personal reflection after a period of intense creative work, where I found myself questioning the purpose of repetitive actions and daily rituals. Rather than resisting these loops, I began to see them as rivers: continuous, sometimes absurd, but also full of quiet energy and possibility. Just as a river moves forward while following its banks, I follow the paths given to me, yet at every threshold, I make choices that shape who I am.
Through a series of animations and interactive sketches made in JavaScript, I invite viewers to experience cycles that may seem meaningless on the surface, but hold the potential for discovery, reflection, and transformation. Each loop, each repetition, becomes not just a constraint, but an opportunity to ask: What narratives emerge from the tension between involuntary loops and chosen thresholds?
Myth of Sisyphus, written by Albert Camus, is a philosophical essay that explores the concept of the absurd and the human search for meaning in a meaningless world. This abstract representation of Sisyphus’ eternal task examines the nature of repetitive actions in our own lives. Like Sisyphus pushing his boulder, we find ourselves in daily loops, yet through these cycles we can discover purpose and even joy in the simplest of actions.
There are two ways to interact with this project.
- With mouse: Drag the ● with your mouse.
- With hand (Recommended): Use your webcam to control the ●. There will be a small circle on the screen as the indicator for your hand position.
Doors act as gateways that allow us to move through space, much like the transitions we experience in life. We enter and exit different phases, and each doorway transforms who we are. Just as an infinite stairway ascends through these transitions, we progress from child to adult, student to professional, and beyond as each role shapes our identity with every step.
The alternating black and white doors symbolize the ongoing cycle and duality of existence, such as life and death, light and darkness, and beginnings and endings. As we walk through this unending corridor of doors, we witness how each transition reshapes us and guides us toward our next transformation. The journey continues infinitely, reminding us that every ending is simply the start of a new beginning.
Accumulation is a digital reflection of a physical process: drawing a black circle, covering it with white, and repeating. What seems like a simple, meaningless loop gradually builds weight — both literally on a canvas, and metaphorically in code. Each iteration leaves behind traces, even if partially erased, creating layers of hidden history beneath the surface. This work explores how small, repetitive actions accumulate over time, carrying subtle changes and quiet narratives within cycles that feel monotonous on the surface.
Inspired by my painting project Blank Canvas, this piece asks the viewer to consider what’s happening beneath repetition — how mistakes, adjustments, and tiny decisions compound. Even when actions feel routine or insignificant, they leave behind marks that shape what follows. Through code, I recreate that weight and persistence, inviting the audience to slow down and notice how loops, though seemingly meaningless, become records of patience, curiosity, and quiet transformation.
Zen garden, originally called かれさんすい(枯山水) ‘Karesansui’, is a traditional Japanese landscape art that features a dry landscape design with rocks, sand, and plants. These gardens are raked continuously to create its patterns and designs. Just like the raking, we all have our daily routines and patterns. Sometimes they feel like a loop, and almost meaningless when seen from afar.
However, when we look closely, we can see the beauty and the patterns in the small details. Like the karesansui, altough we feel like we are in a loop, we have the agency to the details and the changes we make within these loops.
In the asian culture, incense sticks are use for ceremonies and rituals, connecting the spirits of the living and the deceased. All loops in life comes to an end at the end of your life. Or, it could be a start of another loop in some cultural context.
This project is a digital representation of a burning incense stick as a connection between life and death. The smoke changes directions based on the position of the viewer, just as it would change direction based on the wind of people moving by.
Playground Spinner is a nostalgic trip down memory lane. It is a simple playground ride. Yet, looking at it from an adult’s perspective, it was a ride that looped endlessly, but also under control of the kids riding it.
The Continuance is a finctional story of an artist finding their way through a mundane cycle. It is a tranquil journey of realizing patterns in our daily lives, facing a wall of uncertainty, and finding a way to continue.
This work is a complemntary piece to the other projects in this collection.
Thresholds takes this project back to the beginning. The project started out with myself defining involuntary circumstances and the voluntary actions that we take as loops and thresholds. This project is a coded version of the first sketch I created for this collection.
The piece captures the number of people visible in the camera view, and detects arm movements to make a “threshold” in a continuous “loop”.
The overall layout was created with Svelte Kit. The interactive media files are under static, and are called to the website through iframe. The artworks have their own page built with HTML/CSS and runs with p5.js, ml5.js or vanilla JS. The project was deployed on Vercel through GitHub.
It was hard to come up with ideas for each of the projects. Which I might say was the biggest challenge throughout the process. I wasn’t able to reach my initial goals of having 20 projects for the collection. I learned that it is important to keep notes of sudden ideas.
A lot of the ideas came to mind unintentionally. I tried to observe the environment around me, rather than think of a specific inspiration. Inspirations from observations were the ones that made it to the final collection.
The Loops collection would be something I will work on continuously(in a loop) even after this semester. It was fascinating to see people’s thought about this concept, and would someday like to incorporate their ideas to the collection as well.
Footnote.
Thanks again to everyone that gave me feedbacks, and all my wonderful classmates/instructors who helped me out throughout the project.
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