Where Are You Really From?


Semester 6, Visual Communication, HGK Basel (2026)
Project: BA Thesis Project
Mentors: Dirk Koy, Claire Raymond

‘Where Are You Really From?’ explores how culture influences identity. The question "Where are you from?" can be difficult for people with multicultural backgrounds to answer, and this publication challenges the expectation of a simple response. 

There are three chapters, beginning with factual answers like birthplace and nationality, then exploring memory, and ending with how culture appears in the present day. These aspects of identity are pulled apart, translated into percentages and presented through an infographic system. Objective and subjective methods of analysis are used to reveal the limits of measuring culture. The visual system starts within a grid before gradually breaking out of it. Each chapter presents imagery differently, a mix between layering, black and white images and close up documentation of objects. The publication shows the complexities of defining identity: it is layered, always changing and difficult to reduce to one clear answer.    




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