Xinyu Jin

This is a video teaser for a website related to POST TRUTH — a notion that suggests that people are now relying more on emotion and personal beliefs to decide what is the truth instead of evidence and knowledge.

A lot has happened in the past two years. I started my MA during the Hong Kong protests, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the US election, all big occasions one after another. And yet one thing is common to all: people took sides and stood firmly with them. Are the Hong Kong protest terrorism or fighting for their rights; are wearing masks protection or against personal rights; who is right? It seems that no side will ever win the argument. With the covid situation, our social circle got narrower, the information we can access became more limited yet people still stood firm on what they believed. I consider myself a person who likes to listen to different voices, but interestingly, when I think about it, I didn’t change my position either. There are moments that make me feel like we are all living in separate worlds. So, how many truths are there? One, or Multiple? In this project, I chose news as an entry point to arouse questions around the topic of truth.

Here’s the last question: ARE YOU WILLING TO DOUBT?

Where do you stand?

What LENS are you?

We see the world through different lenses. Different visions constantly overlap or even conflict with each other. We hear what we want to hear and see what we want to see. Knowledge, experience, things that we used to rely on when taking position are harder and harder to acquire with the occurrence of the covid situation. But yet, voices seem to become louder and arguments seem to become more intense. Then, what are you relying on now?

This project arouses the notion of each individual being equipped with a customized lens which we use to view the world. What we see are strongly associated with our coordinates and property. This project uses lenses as a metaphor to stimulate the current phenomenon of people being trapped in their vision even though they seemed to have tried every angle.

“We only see what we want to see; we only hear what we want to hear. Our belief system is just like a mirror that only shows us what we believe.」

Don Miguel Ruiz