Plato's Cave


Inspired by Susan Sontag’s philosophical explorations of the implications of photography, this laser-cut box forces the viewer into the position of the objectifying onlooker. Sontag uses the allegory of Plato’s cave suggest how contextual our perceptions of reality can be.

The viewer is instructed to shine the flashlight on their mobile phone through on side to illuminate an otherwise invisible scene on the inside. The subject of the scene is a character in a a vulnerable state, covering their face as their privacy is violated by the photographic onlookers. The image of the subject is framed through the silhouette of an onlookers mobile phone.

By illuminating the scene, the viewer becomes a participant of the forced performative personas that exist in photographic media, particularly social media.