In response to my own conflicts and navigation of a mixed cultural identity, I set out to explore how others experience belonging, disconnection, and cultural transmission across generations. Sitting at the intersection of visual ethnography, data storytelling, and cultural research, this BDes thesis gathers the voices of 21 participants from diverse backgrounds across Toronto, each reflecting on how culture has shaped their identity. In the Grey serves as both a space for personal reconciliation and collective understanding.
By mapping the nuances between self and belonging, I translated personal reflections into data-driven visualizations that give form and meaning to lived experience. The final thesis consists of two parts: a generative visual series, and an accompanying publication, In the Grey, that provides narrative context, personal interpretation, and deeper insight into the experiences behind each form.
But I knew I couldn’t be alone in this. I wanted to understand if others felt similar tensions of disconnection, duality, or uncertainty, and how these cultural relationships shaped their sense of self. To explore this, I designed a survey-questionnaire inviting participants across Toronto to reflect on how their cultural identities have been shaped and transmitted across generations.
The survey responses were translated into numerically-assigned values, which served as inputs for generating symmetrical, geometric forms. Each pairing produced a mandala-like shape, abstractly encoding the emotional nuances of one’s cultural experience. While some participants had near-identical inputs, resulting in similar visuals, others diverged entirely, producing entirely distinct outcomes. To maintain visual cohesion, each generated form was refined to reduce noise, then pixelated as a deliberate design choice to create a bold visual language that anchors the entire project.
GENERATIONS AND CONNECTION
This section explores how generational residency and cultural background influence one’s sense of identity. Each visualization represents a pairing between a participant’s generational depth and the cultural background they feel most connected to, resulting in up to 32 unique outputs. The findings show that even with deep generational roots, a strong cultural connection is not guaranteed, disconnection can still persist.
BELONGING AND SELFHOODThis section visualizes the relationship between identity and social belonging by pairing responses on how cultural groups shape one’s sense of self with how accepted participants feel within those communities. Up to 25 unique visuals reveal where internal identity aligns, or misaligns, with external validation, emphasizing that cultural connection doesn't always translate to feeling included.
PRESERVATION AND REPRESSIONLooking to the future, this section explores how individuals engage with cultural traditions; what they choose to carry forward, and what they leave behind. By pairing responses about perceived cultural pressure with efforts to reconnect (or not), each visualization encodes the tensions between tradition and personal agency. With 10 possible variations, these forms capture how cultural preservation is navigated in a modern society.
Though abstract at first glance, these forms carry symbolic weight. The themes informed three distinct visualization systems, with each of the 21 participants are assigned a form across all three. Repetition across the visuals reveals how many cultural experiences are shared, offering comfort in commonality while celebrating the differences that make each story unique.