Meng Zhou is a visual designer based in Shanghai, China. She previously studied a BA at Macau University of Science and Technology (2015-2019). Her practice combines observations on social phenomenon with her own thoughts. These works encompass type design, moving image and installations, and deal with the themes of human behaviour, subconsciousness and her own history.
Meng Zhou
In the new media age, the development of channels that promote consumption brings about a transformation in the way people think and their consumer behaviours. Social media give people opportunities to receive a variety of information but it is simultaneously hard to limit 'entertainment time'. When the feature of attracting users’ attention is built into the nature of social media, it is important to understand the thinking mode of the brain. My practice draws on the writings of Daniel Kahneman, and his idea of changes in thinking and behaviours when ‘fast thinking mode’ is applied in scrolling behaviours on social media.
When people read books and newspapers, they know how to follow the sequence of the order of reading, so that reading can be efficient. The reading eyes are mainly in horizontal direction. However, when watching TV and other new media, our eyes move along with the content in a passive movement, with no visual viewing order. This causes people to be led by the content, not by 'the watching order'. Due to this aspect, the development of the medium is a key point of discussion in my practice.
Why do people seldom feel they are unable to limit their ‘entertainment time’ when using traditional media? Marshall McLuhan writes, in Understanding Media, that ‘The effects of technology do not occur at the level of opinions or concepts, but alter sense ratios or patterns of perception' steadily and without any resistance.’ In graphic design, a grid is used to set sequencing of reading, does it have the same function in videos? My practice undertakes experiments on the integration of the two mediums.
5'14''
5'14'' is a project principally dealing with ‘medium differences’ and 'eye movements'— particularly in the social media environment. It aims to find the factors effecting people’s attention by analysing watch sequences when reading and playing online platforms.
Medium:
Experimental Film, After Effect, Touch DesignerSize:
1290*720Eye movements simulation — In order to find the route of eye movements on social media, I made a small test to simulate how eyes moves when scrolling a screen, by letting the eyes focus on the blue cube whose blinking follows the content movements combine with the comments below the post, to illuminate the 'conflict visual experience'.
Eye tracking test
Medium integration
In graphic design, also in traditional media such as books, newspaper, and the grid helps people to set the reading orders which helps them watch sequences. Will it have the same function in videos? I decided to conduct an experiment on the integration of the two media. To integrate videos and the grid together to let people watch separate videos, in order to study the relationship between eyes and attention, and to make known the difference between viewing habits of traditional and new media.