Does the cup shape the water, or the water shapes the cup?
The Water Bodies is a series that reinterprets tarot cards from a semiotic perspective, offering a reconsideration and visual rendition of tarot interpretations.
The visual system of The Water Bodies is set between the contradiction and connection of two and three dimensions, closely intertwined with the characteristics of tarot interpretation and the trichotomy of semiotics, forming three sets of contrasting relationships:
Tarot: Abstract visual on cards - Specific event in interpretation
Peircean semiotics: Sign - Interpretant
The Water Bodies: Two-dimensional lines - Three-dimensional liquid form
From the abstractness and uncertainty of tarot cards, specific and unique events are interpreted. The semiotic process inherent in tarot is presented visually as a two-dimensional line (Sign) holding a three-dimensional water form (Interpretant). This contrast between two and three dimensions is established as the visual logic of The Water Bodies and serves as the foundation for subsequent visual derivations of each card.
In objective reality, events occur first, and people abstractly transform them into artistic expressions. However, in the process of tarot activities, the abstract expressions as signs exist on the cards first, and then people interpret them into specific events.
This is similar to how, in reality, the cup shapes the form of the water. In The Water Bodies, however, the water shapes the concept of the cup in the human mind.
When water does not interact with the lines, the abstract lines can be interpreted as anything. But once water comes into play, the limitless possibilities of interpreting the lines collapse into one interpretation: the outline cups.
是杯子塑造了水，还是水塑造了杯子？
《水体》是一系列对塔罗牌面的再设计，是从符号学角度对塔罗解译的再思考与视觉演绎。
《水体》的视觉系统被设定为二维与三维之间的矛盾与连接，这一点与塔罗解译的特点以及符号学的三元关系密不可分，形成三组对照关系：
塔罗：抽象牌面——具体事件
皮尔斯符号学：符号——解释项
《水体》：二维线条——三维水体
从塔罗牌面的抽象性与不确定性中，解读出具体而唯一的事件。这一塔罗所具有的符号学过程，被呈现为以二维线条（符号/sign）承载三维水体（解释项/interpretant）的视觉表达。这种二维与三维的对比被设定为《水体》的视觉逻辑，成为后续每一张牌面视觉衍义的基础。
客观事实先发生，人们再对其进行抽象处理，转化成艺术性的表达。而塔罗活动的过程恰恰相反，抽象的表达作为符号先存在于牌面，之后人们再将其解释为具体的事件。
这正如在现实中，杯子塑造水的形状。而在《水体》中，水塑造杯子在人脑中的概念。
当水没有介入并与线条产生互动时，抽象的线条可以被解释为任何事物；而水一旦介入，线条解读的无限可能就坍缩成了一种解释：杯子的轮廓。
In Pierce's semiotic theory, there is a triadic model composed of three elements: the sign, the interpretant, and the object.
This model corresponds to the three elements in this work: the two-dimensional lines, the animation of water flowing in the cup (idea of a cup formed in the human brain), and the three-dimensional cup.
Based on the Pierce semiotic model, this project reshapes the tarot card visuals to explore how abstract visual symbols are given meaning in the creative process and how they are interpreted in the viewer's mind.
在皮尔斯的符号学理论中，存在由符号(Sign)、解释项 (Interpretant)、对象 (Object) 三者构成的三元模型。
此模型正对应本作品中的，二维线条、水流注入杯子的动画（人脑中形成的杯子的意象）、三维的杯子这三者。
以皮尔斯三元模型为基础，作品通过对塔罗牌面的重塑，探讨了抽象视觉符号如何在创作中被赋予意义，又如何在观者脑中被解译的过程。