I returned to the statement and broke it down in order to find the real unknowns behind it. I realised that the questions were: Are fold and unfold tools or research objects? What else can be exposed when the frame is already known? I returned to the Encounter exhibition and Richter’s concept, and discovered that the guidebook could serve as a shared carrier of display and backstage. Rather than separating the two, it might be more useful to use folding to reveal them as two sides of the same structure. I gradually arrived at “hierarchy” as a way to explore how fold / unfold might change the relationship between display and backstage.
I made a hypothesis. I collected possible forms of display and backstage from the exhibition, including the press release, route, index, and other materials, and divided them into five levels according to degree. I then placed them into my folding structure. As the viewer opened the structure progressively, they would discover that an exhibition is constructed through countless pieces of information and moments, rather than through a single immediate act of viewing. I then took a step back and expanded the folding structure into three types: the zine fold with a linear narrative, the general fold with gradual unfolding, and the intuitive fold, which opens from four sides and is more modular. I analysed the frame, reading rhythm, and hierarchy of each one. In the end, this partly overturned my hypothesis: fold is not a simple tool for “exposing the backstage”; each fold generates a different hierarchy-organising principle.
My enquiry was therefore refined into: What kind of hierarchy does fold generate when reorganising information levels?
I received feedback that the information was too noisy, which made it difficult to focus. The five levels of information were already rich in themselves, and once placed into three structures, it became even less clear what exactly was being compared. I needed to choose between content and structure. I also needed to make the argument more objective, rather than designing the system myself and then testing it myself.
After talking with classmates, I gradually became clearer that folding itself generates meaning, and does not necessarily depend on content. This pushed me to begin a new round of experiments focused on reducing informational noise.
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