An Unseen Journey

18 min readMay 17, 2021

Visualizing the invisible, Transitions

“Invisible elements help one form and connect with reality.” We are surrounded by multiple elements. Each of these interacts with us in its unique manner. These elements may seem close, far, small, big, known so on so forth. I would say some are visible and many are invisible to us. According to the oxford dictionary, the meaning of Invisible is “Unable to be seen.” The term invisible has multiple synonyms to it some of them are: imperceptible, veiled, transparent, intangible, obscure, ideal, out of sight, shrouded indiscernible, and unnoticeable. [1] While looking into the term and digging deeper I realized that invisible has multiple perspectives and layers to it. The meaning one refers, reflects, or relates to depends on the lens they are using. For example, transparent acknowledges the presence of the element but states its character of not being visible, transparent glass. On the other hand, out of sight states that an object is not present in the area of vision.

I started to collect and connect the information. Trying to answer my bigger question how can one visualize the inviable elements? Digging deeper resulted in the formation of more questions like, what are invisible elements? Are they common for everyone? How is our perspective affecting what we see? The take of science on the topic of invisible? Invisible and its relationship with beliefs, culture, actions, mundane objects, activities, information, and us? Ignorance and invisible? Conscious, subconscious, and unconscious?

The process of breaking down my bigger question started by answering the above and helped me to zoom in. Connecting and grouping of my thoughts through mind maps and discussion led me to the word “Transitions”. How is transition related to invisible? What are the different types of transition? The layers and the lenses? What connections and relation does transition have?

Mind map about Invisible, Transition and the Form

In the mind map above I have explored connections between the digital, physical, invisible, and transition. I am interested in exploring Digital and physical forms of design, being an industrial and human center designer. I was trying to observe how my questions and thought process would expose and mold themselves concerning the three major divides. The words jotted down not only point out what the terms mean but also are in, direct and indirect relation to each other creating a web.

Transition means “The process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.” [2] Every word has more than one perspective to it. My understanding of transition is the stages where changes are taking place. It’s in a constant state of motion. Process and changes are the two words that describe transition for me, it’s the most basic description.

My research and discussions with peers opened the different ways one can look at transitions. One can perceive it through multiple lenses, some of them are transition as a journey, process, changes, movements, a story even patterns. Zooming in was a process that helped me see the different layers. The relation transition has with the above can be, supporting or even at times separating the layers. Changes and transition go hand in hand. According to my understanding, it’s the factor of time. A situation or an object is evolving, learning in many different ways. The time spent in doing so can be labeled as a journey, the stages it goes through is the process. When seen in detail one can analyze the movements, the progress, also visualize and study the patterns that are being created. One can see the whole as a story or choose to see them individually. It has a lot of information to share be it either way.

Transition is an indication of something being in motion or inaction. A process has been initiated. Out of the many things we do some are visible to us, some are directly related to us whereas there are a set of transitions that are invisible, indirectly related or it can also be related to us, but we fail to see it. Things don’t become invisible to us just because we fail to see them or scientifically, humanly we can’t visualize them. Many times we tend to ignore, miss, forget to notice our surroundings. Our minds play a very important role here, unconsciously we are looking at everything and thinking about the little things around us. But our mind consciously keeps us focused on what has to be done at that moment. The unconscious mind is a storeroom filled with information that we have inherited and experienced. This information is not always accessible to us but it is present. Similarly, our mind trains itself to live in the moment and it as planning, processing the action the person has to do at the present moment. Therefore, unconsciously we miss, ignore our surroundings making these spaces, information invisible to us.

Transitions and invisible elements to a great extent are connected. There are multiple transitions taking place every second and a huge amount of them are invisible. For example, the act of me typing this paper, I do see my fingers moving and the result of it getting typed on the screen. I can hear the keyboard but I cannot visualize how the muscles in my finger are interacting with space and each other. How is my breathing pattern changing, and affecting my movement? How the air in and around the keyboard reacts to my action and the temperature? I also fail to visualize the way my brain is sorting out information, breaking it down into words, and helping me to type. I do hear my self-reciting the sentences, and thinking about them. But I fail to visualize the journey, the transitions, and multiple interactions that are taking place at the same time.

My Understanding

We all easily visualize the before and after picture. We also try our best to document the process, to capture the phases. But many times the process becomes a blur. According to me, transitions are the middle space, in other words, process or journey. The transition here Is also representing changes; one can visualize a set of these changes which make a small part of the bigger picture. We end up failing to visualize multiple bits and pieces, this can be because of us, the nature of the object, or the action taking place. It’s an unconscious habit we tend to be focused on the goal. We do go through all the small steps but fail to visualize them in detail. The simplest example here Is breathing, we breathe to survive but don’t really observe its patterns or at times even realize its presence. Exploring transition as a term considering the different sections of ethics will help me expand my vision. The different ethics include psychology, sociology, cultural, physical, digital, tangible so on so forth.

I want to not only explore specific transition that takes place but also dig deeper into how we have multiple transitions that are invisible and ignored? How can they help gain knowledge? how can they be given a form? I have chosen weaving as my medium as it has an organic touch to it and in many ways plays with numbers. I want to explore how patterns, color, form, and sizes expose the hidden details or show the bigger picture. Al so, I am intrigued by the way the digital world, invisible interaction, patterns, and information can be connected to make the invisible visible.

Thesis Statement

I decided to base my research on a simple question of how to visualize the invisible. Which later led me to the topic of transitions. I was curious about the different lenses and layers transition had. I wanted to explore the invisible transitions, and information they give when visualized. The tool I was intrigued by and wanted to explore was weaving. Weaving allows me to explore with fluid and flexible materials, lets me experiment with colors and patterns. A question I indirectly ventured into was related to the tangible and digital world.

Research

During my research, I came across talks and studies where people have tried to visualize the invisible (movement of the muscles, interaction between the space around us and objects, us, heat, air, etc.) and tried to hear how sound interacts with objects to give information. In this digital world, we capture everything in multiple ways, mediums. While capturing we are also gaining knowledge of invisible information, which will be visible when looked at specifically. The videos I was most antiqued by were, 1) See invisible motion and hear silent sounds and 2) Seeing the invisible Schlieren imaging.

See invisible motion and hear silent sounds was an experiment and case study done to increase the frames per second to 200 frames. When seen in slow motion one can see the minute details of the change. For example, while we breathe how do our muscles interact with each other how with every pulse our body is changing color. One can also capture the process of how emotions impact us physically. They have also experimented with sound and how objects around us can help capture information.

Seeing the invisible Schlieren imaging is an experiment where the person has explored with a concave mirror blue light and camera zoom in. He has conducted a series of actions keeping the object in front of the mirror and captured in slow motion the interaction his hand, object, and action has with the air, temperature capturing the patterns created.

There were other resources where I looked into transitions in emotions, how our mind works and what’s the process of going from one state to another. The scientific representation of transition and a philosophical. There were intriguing discussions, case study and talks about what invisible is and how do different people perceive transition.

Some of the research tools I used to expand my perspective and also narrow down what I wanted to explore in depth were mind maps, mood boards, discussion with peers. Mood boards help me pour out my thoughts and give them a visual sense. I was trying to explore a research method “thinking through making” understanding my forms and documenting them together was a very helpful process.

Inspiration board a collection of images that helped me explore form, color, and patterns. It’s a board that gives me an in-depth understanding of how am I visualizing my results and what intrigues me. They help in setting a tone, even give a defined language to one’s project.

Weave Inspiration Board space where I was able to research the different types of weaving techniques that are present. Explore the materials, color, size, density. I narrowed it down to patterns that were curved in nature. One can see the fluidity of the patterns and the repetitive nature of the above. It acts as an illusion.

Getting inspired by the Schlieren imaging I started to dig deeper and find more examples. Example of how different actions interact. What patterns they create. How do they interact with air, temperature, objects around them? I also learned how advanced are we in capturing the above. While I was studying this example I realized that we can collect a huge amount of information just by visualizing. By observing the details, by zooming in and out, and by experimenting using multiple lenses. There is no end to how much one wants to know and no boundaries are formed when it comes to what we want to absorb and build our perspective.

I started sketching out the patterns I visualized, sensed in my surrounding. This was an intimate activity that made me realize how I had a set of fixed lenses I was using in my day-to-day life. my research exposed me to the other lenses that were invisible to me. I learned that invisible can also be described as things that we did not open up to. Just because we don’t know something or do not agree with doesn’t mean it does not exist, they become invisible to us but not to all.

Insights

- Lens and perspective of the observer, molds the form and meaning of the invisible

- Visualizing the invisible not only gives a perspective. It is informative.

- The process is more descriptive and detailed. There are stories hidden in the details.

- One can zoom in or Zoom out

- Explaining and visualizing these transitions is subjective.

- We all have our fixed set of visions and at times its gets hard for us to explore some because of our nature and experiences.

- Having an open mind is the key to see more.

- We see the relevant and ignore the irrelevant

- Simple and small changes have drastic effects.

- Everything interacts with each other and creates an environment for themselves.

- We are in a space that has multiple pockets of coexisting systems, there are overlaps, connections, merging spaces that end up creating new systems.

My Findings and Samples

Exploring with weaving as my form and visualizing the invisible transition I came across an example that helped me convey my thought process. Weaving being a fluid still restricted medium allowed me to explore in conventional and non-conventional ways. I will be explaining my finding through my making.

This entire process was a way to visualize information, data. The relevance of what we find for me was a secondary factor, as one can group what comes to light and use it accordingly. I was aiming to explore and expose the hidden data. Visualizing these transitions give out information that not only helps people gain knowledge but also build connection, create identities, have a better understanding also have a reasoning system especially when it comes to the questions of why about the mind.

Us and Our Surrounding visualize the patterns that are made by us while we interact with our environment the air, heat, objects close to us or fat away, people, nature. It’s not only how we interact with our surround also what interactions our environment offers us. I have taken a very mundane environment for my exploration. Walking in the park. We go through multiple changes while we walk in space. We come across people things that we might not directly interact with but still affects and get affected by them. I wanted to explore why do these patterns exist and what do they look like. We all see the main activity and to a great extent recognize and record the pattern. For example, walking, hand movements, breathing. In the midst of all this, we fail to see how the air movement, change in our body heat, simple actions like just a smile or a wave instantly creates new patterns. There are multiple layers.

Finding: What we see, feel, know is not enough to forms the complete picture, this is a false notion. One needs to step back, observe, absorb. This helps to identify the multiple factors and collect information

I have tried to replicate organic patterns that look fluid and create an illusion of movement. In my exploration, there are 2 types of drafting straight and broken abstract. The area of the cloth that has a straight draft represents the most direct ways of seeing. Whereas the middle space has my broken abstract draft exposing the multiple layers of the invisible transitions taking place. It helps the viewer to visualize the fluid patterns around us.

Stages visualize the patterns of transition between phases. These phases are part and pieces of transition. According to me while we go through these stages we pass through a series of different interactions. These interactions can last for a split second or minutes. Each of these stages has its importance and identity. As we are always focused on the outcome and what will we do next we miss out on understanding, observing, these transitions. For example, when we have to make decisions we go from feeling confused to pointing out the fact without any biases then we enter a space where we evaluate, mold our thoughts later resulting in making a choice.

Finding: We go through the regress process, pass through multiple stages in a short period. Only because we don’t observe and feel the intensity doesn’t mean it’s not present. Going through stages is an exhausting process.

I have played with colors, the thickness of the threads, material, and density to showcase the versatility and how every stage one crosses they have their value and identity. Starting from the left it’s a mix of warm dull colors, the initial stage of decision making, we have questions, statements, perspectives so on so forth. The white thick threads represent the grouping process. I have used one color as it’s a space where we are just laying down the information. Leading to light yellow twisted threads which indicate our process of forming a picture. The weaving sample ends with a warm blue plain weave showing that one has made their choice. The colors from mix to warm blue indicate the intensity change. Blue is the color that indicates calmness.

Thinking visualizes the patterns that are made while one is searching for information, solution in their mind. It starts at the bottom with a statement, takes some time for one to understand the situation, leading to looking at different perspectives which involves grouping of information known, finding something new. Afterward, our thoughts start to connect and merge to create a perspective leading to an answer. Every answer leads to another question creating a loop.

Finding: Every transition be it visible, invisible, direct, or indirect follows a fixed pattern. When I say fixed it means has a similar bigger picture, details may differ. The process will somewhat remain the same.

I have tried to experiment with material color and the density of the plain weave. By merging and mixing colors I am trying to showcase the overlaps and the layers that are involved in the process. I have used white for the initial question as to its just simple statements that build curiosity. I have used jute fiber to indicate the uncertainty. Leading to the use of white and blue for showing the grouping process. There are multiple shades of blue used in the next section to make one visualize the role of forming and layers. The answer is in yellow a color that indicates achievement. I have ended weave with a section of off-white showing how my process helped in evolving my question. And the last is again white threads indicating the loop.

Conversation visualizes the patterns that are present during a conversation. Conversation an activity we perform in our day-to-day life. It is a huge part of our routine. I have tried to visualize the transitions that take place while we talk. An activity this simple should have a straightforward division. This was a surprise to me too, looking at the multiple layers and the intensity of the above in every phase. It starts with two points of view, indicated in blue and white the shade of brown being the common ground that acted as a factor for this interaction. The patterns in white threads are the question statements one is conversing about. The mix of white and blue is the mix of perspective, a giving and receiving process. Leading to proving their points, or stating their thoughts firmly with may be welcomed or not. To again have an understanding conversation at this stage one can see the patterns made during the transition. Every conversation has more than one statement or question. It’s a breakdown process that repeats itself till the time the 2 points of view start merging, the blue-green mix of threads exposing the layers and intensity. The weave that follows this is a sky blue woolen thread that indicates merger and newly formed thoughts. And the loop continues.

Finding: Even simple has its complications.

I have played with colors, the thickness of the threads, material, and density to showcase the different stages. I have tried to indicate individuality, intensity, and overlaps.

Temperature, Air, and patterns visualize the patterns that are made while temperature and air interact with each other. The movement of air is manipulated by temperature creating patterns in and around. I have painted cool and warm colors indicating the temperature and with white and black lines drew the patterns. The air moves around the circumference of the warm, neutral zones they interact depending on the tone and for the cool color zones, they not only create patterns outside but also inside. I have tried to replicate the flow and fluidity of the elements.

Finding: Transitions are very fluid. According to me, there is no rigid form of interaction until and unless space is taking place it is controlled. I believe even with the control elements there will be fluidity.

Zooming in visualizes the patterns even the smallest element might make as they all are interacting with one another. each having their own identity. Zooming in gives out more assorted information. When we look into the details we get to know what makes the bigger picture. In my illustration above I have made red circles that are in pocket-like spaces. One would think that because the main structure is the same all the small elements should interact in the same manner forming similar patterns. But here each pocket is similar and different in its way. The transition one would me are indicated with white lines it the walls of the structure. According to me every element is changing and forming patterns at any given moment even the structure.

Finding: belonging to a bigger picture doesn’t mean the type of transition and interaction one will have to be the same. Each element be it how small has its own identity. Together they are making a bigger image by collaborating

Waves visualize the patterns created when space is given to an element. Transitions are taking place; patterns are formed even when one is at rest. Space and the situation one is in will interact according to that. Here I have tried to explore how one object when given the freedom to interact in its way without any restrictions or involvement of another object what patterns are formed. For example, sleep it’s a rest state where one escapes to one’s space. It’s up to the person how they want their transitions to be like. I have drawn fluid lines that are moving circularly, indicating its complete interaction. One can observe how the movement is evolving and the shape, turns, the essence of the transitions.

Finding: Transitions take place even when one thinks they are resting. We affect our surroundings and vice versa constantly.

Distress to peace visualizes the stages that one experiences while one goes from a disturbed or hassled state to peace. The middle is the battleground. One keeps figuring out and steps into different stages, gaining perspective and sorting the elements leading to a peaceful state. During this process, one not only reaches their safe space but also gains perspective and knowledge. I have used colors to indicate the distress and the peace, using different materials to indicate the nature of hurdles and the organic and fluid form indicates the flexibility. (by not restricting the movements of my thread).

Finding: Understanding the journey and recognizing it helps one evolve.

Head Space visualizes the space inside our minds. We are thinking continuously be it consciously or unconsciously. Multiple thoughts cross our minds on day to day basis. I see my mind as a galaxy where there are multiple systems. Each of these has its unique identity but also are co-existing. The dark small spirals with colors popping show the depth of their system. They are surrounded by a white and yellow thread; they are the connections. What ties all of them together. And then toward the end, there are these dark galaxy-like spaces which indicate that this is not it. There is more to explore. Mind is a complex space and I have tried to visualize this statement. I also believe multiple transitions take place that we miss to record or even know and I have tried to give this an image.

Finding: When one starts to connect, things start to grow. A system works with the help of these invisible transitions that define one’s individuality, helps co-exist, makes us explore by asking questions and seeking answers.

I have played with colors circular patterns and density.

Reflection

The piece above is a visualization of how my process was throughout the research project. I started with a bigger question that got started to shape itself with the question I asked a huge section of interlacing and overlaps as I started to find answers to my queries. I came across multiple lenses, perspectives. The journey of sorting through information was tedious and overwhelming but I learned a lot. The next stage that I entered was where I have started to form my perspective about my topic. Invisible transitions and I had coordinated it with my process of making. I followed 2 main types of making the weaving and illustrations. This process led me to clarity. I was able to merge my theories and my understanding with my making.

The result of the above was I was able to define what invisible transitions mean and how they are related to interaction. The combination made me realize how little attention we give to our journey where the journey is what gives us the most.

Therefore, I can say transitions and invisible elements are connected in more than one way. When one starts to visualize the invisible transitions they gain higher understanding, because of the amount of information they receive.

References

[1] https://thesaurus.yourdictionary.com/invisible- synonyms for invisible

[2] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/invisible — definition of transition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vi_4BLMPZ0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQzpLLhN0fY

https://www.fise.hu/www/blog/ejtech-sensescapes-interactive-textile-exhibition?language=en

https://www.notonthehighstreet.com/illuminatedapparel/product/glow-doodle-dream-cloud

https://www.pinterest.ca/search/pins/?q=jacard%20design%20and%20computer&rs=typed&term_meta

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13639080802360952

https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.09300

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327647jcd0702_1

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0939362509000144