ITP Thesis Archive 2025

Project Description

​​This project is an online interactive desktop where text, memory, and narrative intertwine. Visitors can click through scattered files, open windows, and hidden notes to explore fragments of me.

Unlike static archives, I want to let this space breathe. It is not about preserving memories in a fixed form, but about allowing them to evolve. Instead of erasing, I choose to tend, modify, and let the past linger, creating an interface for remembering, forgetting, and everything in between.

Technical Details

Built with React, TypeScript, and HTML/CSS, the project is deployed on Vercel and features hand-drawn visuals created in Procreate.

Research/Context

This project began with my fascination with text, not just as written language, but as something visual, rhythmic, and intimate. My relationship with text has been shaped by years of practicing Chinese calligraphy, coding, reading music notation, and learning new languages. To me, letters are more than just symbols; they carry a quiet presence, a sense of timing, and emotional texture.

Inspired by operating systems and digital nostalgia, I designed a web-based desktop interface, a space that feels common but private. On this desktop, texts could unfold like origami stars, connect like constellations, or fall like rain, etc. These metaphors helped me think about how stories can be revealed gradually, playfully through familiar, nostalgic objects, and sometimes quietly, and how digital space might hold a new kind of intimacy.

This project became a way for me to explore and reflect: what does it mean to share something personal online? Can something typically private, like a desktop, become a site for connection? Does it add another layer of closeness, or change how we experience vulnerability?