Blank Space Playground is the digital gardener of the namesake online space. Working with media like street photography, illustration, zine-making, and writing, this space explores urban environments, socio-cultural phenomena, and the human condition, through the lens of perception and power dynamics.
The interest towards perception and power dynamics stems from the following context:
Humans have been communicating meanings / messages with symbols and stories almost throughout the entire history. While we are mainly fact / truth-seeking creatures, our perception towards a fact / truth is for better or for worse, largely dependent on the following factors:
- what the symbols and stories are
- how they are shaped
- why they are shaped in a certain way
- who shape them
In other words, while fact / truth / message is important, how people perceive the them is more important as it can vary our actions and emotional response towards it, which explains discrepancies ranging from socio-political views, cultures, to social norms, to name a few. In order to understand the differences in actions and outcomes, it is inevitable that one takes a look at how perception depicts / interprets, and how the power dynamics behind alters the things humans consider important.
Exhibitions and appearances
2025
ZINE YO! FEST | ZINE COOP (Hong Kong)
Zines Spectrum and Doppelgängers are exhibited in the section 'City Observation' of the festival organized by ZINE COOP, Hong Kong's first collective and platform of zine culture that is founded in 2017.
Zine Day | Your Local Newsstand (Singapore)
Featured zine Spectrum in an exhibition by Singapore’s independent publisher specializing in photography-based works.
Awards and recognition
2021–24
20 featured images (2021–24) & 10M+ views on Unsplash (account now defunct, achieved July 2024)
2019
Interviews and features
2024
The scene of the signs: Hong Kong shop signs as socio-cultural representations | allcitiesarebeautiful.com
2017
Among Buildings with Iris Leung | VSCO Journal
Self-published zines
2025
The Traum(a)'s Kunstkammer
A visceral exploration of many faces of trauma through a cabinet of curiosities. Blending surreal illustrations, rudimentary physics knowledge, Wikipedia searches, and dark humour, this zine distills agony into 12 eccentric objects.
2024
Doppelgängers
A photographic-illustrative tale of personal stagnation — whether by fate or unconscious choice, and formation of trauma.
Spectrum
A chromatic journey through minimalist architecture photography, celebrating the beauty of the mundane and the art of perception.
Contact
Interested in the themes and subjects this garden explores? Want to collaborate with the gardener? Or just want to say hi? Contact the gardener via email blankspaceplayground [at] protonmail.com. Your message will be reviewed soon.