This capstone examines the profound meaning embedded in ignorance, irresponsibility, and pain when encountered in everyday life, as expressed through the phrase “I don’t know.” It reflects on the negative impact that such a seemingly universal response has on self-awareness. Beneath its casual surface, “I don’t know” contains limited knowledge of history or truth, a deliberate strategy to evade social and personal responsibility, and a sense of helplessness that seeks escape when faced with suffering.

This capstone focuses on East Asia, combining three physical models with graphic design as an installation art form to examine social apathy, the erosion of collective memory, and the neglect of historical atrocities, such as authoritarian destruction of civil rights and forced demolitions. Through this lens, it analyzes how “I don’t know” functions negatively within the shifting boundaries of memory, ideology, and silence.

At its core, the capstone centers on a diorama constructed through advanced model-making techniques. Diagrammatic two-dimensional drawings are critically transformed into three-dimensional media¹, producing models that resonate with the theme, and are further developed through spatial assembly into corresponding dioramas². By combining narrative structures with model subject matter, the work embeds the more profound logic of the abstract phrase “I don’t know,” which integrates ignorance, irresponsibility, and helplessness, into specific site-based case studies, weaving meaning into the visual and spatial language of the work.

The process begins with the collection and synthesis of diverse materials such as texts, original works, photographs, and drawings to generate two-dimensional and graphic representations³,⁴,⁵. It examines various methods of translating data-based language into visual imagery, preserving the act of observing what has been forgotten. These visual elements are then further transformed into three-dimensional structures, combining biomimetic and organic forms to translate real-world photographs, language, and found media into a constructed, imagined physical environment.

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This capstone begins its exploration of “I don’t know” with this diorama as a starting point for developing thought. The first part starts with a diorama titled “Child, Put Down the Gun, the War Is Over.” Using the artistic medium of scale models, it expresses the mediators that connect and disconnect the worlds of children and adults, creating a space that is both realistic and absurd. The work invites viewers to step into the role of adults, reflecting on children’s ignorance of war, or, from the child’s perspective, imagining the heroic image of a soldier while being unable to comprehend the preciousness of life. This mutual inability to understand each other’s inner world sets the journey into motion, beginning with the phrase “I don’t know.” In its abstract existence, the phrase reveals how it is often used to end conversations, evade responsibility, or avoid deeper engagement with issues such as violence, social apathy, and ideological shifts.

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The second part of the project combines three-dimensional media with mapping¹. It uses the “404 error code,” a visual symbol representing deleted or blocked information, to tell the story of how people were forced to forget the 1989 Chinese civil rights movement in Tiananmen Square, where citizens protested authoritarian rule and pursued democratic rights. The model consists of a central structure that embodies a rhythm breaking beyond conventional boundaries, accompanied by a secondary structure that grasps and controls this rhythm. Together with a blocking structure, the model emphasizes the reality of information censorship. This part critiques the manipulability of history and how it is transformed into a cultural tool used by rulers to exploit the ruled, becoming a passive and silenced collective memory.

The third part describes the forgotten memories of the military dependents’ villages, which are buried beneath Taipei’s Daan Forest Park, memories that have become unfamiliar to the younger generation. Although the park exists as a public space, it also serves as a means of discarding historical burdens. By constructing a reflective ruins diorama model combined with steel-structured, nest-like forms and background installations, this section highlights the contradictions between the demolition of the villages and the power structures involved, as well as the older generation’s longing for their homeland versus the essence of youth entertainment, revealing the tension between renewal and destruction. This act of avoidance and forgetting exposes the strained relationships between past, present, and future, inviting reflection on how public architecture and entertainment venues can infringe upon others’ rights, and imagining the unexpected renewal that can emerge from silence and abandonment in a forgotten world, along with the responsibilities owed to history.

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This capstone compels viewers to confront the violence and harm often obscured by the phrase “I don’t know,” while raising the question: What makes people want to forget the pain yet remain unable to move beyond the past? After silence, what is abandoned? And what is born as a result? In what forms can new life continue these legacies? The work seeks to transform passive indoctrination into active reflection, stepping beyond history written by authorities, and critically examining how, under collective social ideologies, so-called “national justice” can impose bullying and harm on others. It invites contemplation of one’s connection and responsibility as an independent individual to others across different cultural contexts.

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By transforming abstract language into tactile images and physical models, this capstone serves as both a visual medium and an artistic object.