AUNY (Art Under New York) is an early project that marks the origin of SHINHO’s long-term investigation into perception and visual information systems.
Initiated in 2004 as an MFA thesis project at Parsons School of Design to commemorate the centennial of the New York City Subway, the work began with a perceptual question: what if the subway were recognized not as an aging infrastructure often perceived as dirty, noisy, crowded, and often unhygienic, but as a distributed art-friendly cultural environment embedded throughout the city?
Observing that more than one hundred public artworks—including works by
Roy Lichtenstein and Sol LeWitt, as well as performances by local musicians—are embedded throughout the subway network, the project proposed a perceptual
shift summarized in the statement: “The New York City subway is beautiful.”
Roy Lichtenstein and Sol LeWitt, as well as performances by local musicians—are embedded throughout the subway network, the project proposed a perceptual
shift summarized in the statement: “The New York City subway is beautiful.”
The central visual experiment of aUNY reconstructs the visual language of the
subway map into the figure of Venus, transforming a complex institutional information graphics system into a human figure. Through this transformation, the project explores how institutional information graphics can be reorganized through symbolic abstraction and structural remapping.
subway map into the figure of Venus, transforming a complex institutional information graphics system into a human figure. Through this transformation, the project explores how institutional information graphics can be reorganized through symbolic abstraction and structural remapping.
Rather than functioning as a place marketing campaign or a fixed visual identity, aUNY proposes an orientation-based cultural image structure for reinterpreting
the subway—an early investigation into how spatial logic and visual
systems reshape perception and identity.
the subway—an early investigation into how spatial logic and visual
systems reshape perception and identity.
This project marks the starting point of SHINHO’s continuing research into how visual structures reorganize recognition, orientation, and meaning.
