Shang Zhaocheng

The different perspectives of the topic „What It Means to Be Different “


The workshop of the Studierendenwerk Karlsruhe was based on four aspects. The participants reflected the topic „What It Means to Be Different “ from different perspectives together with the artist Andreas Helmling. T This resulted in the following four levels:

Perception of others
The students had the opportunity to present their perception of others through the lens of the camera. They photographed the other participants with different objects to emphasizes this aspect.

Self-perception
The portraits represent the self-perception of the unknown through one’s own person, how the perceive themselves as „being different“.

Perception of the surroundings
You can perceive your surroundings with all senses. What makes it interesting is to perceive them through someone else, to see what he or she sees, what he or she perceives as being significant, ordinary, strange, attractive, exotic. In process you can realize what you perceive as foreign and how you react upon it. There also were some positive aspects of self-perception and the perception of others.

Perception as a group
The students and the artist try to emphasize perception of being different as a group. They reflected upon aspects like exclusion, intimidation and discrimination.

Back