Intention: Perceptual Illusion 

The term “steganography” refers to the process of concealing some sort of a message within another medium. Generally, the hidden messages “appear to be (or be part of) something else,” like an image. The big idea is that the hidden message does not immediately catch the attention of the viewer – instead the image must be intentionally examined for one to notice the message.

For this project, I chose to study a type of steganography where words are hidden in larger pieces. There are many cases where upon first glance, we just see interesting shapes or patterns. But after closer examination, we may realize that various letters have been intentionally concealed. This type “illusion” works because our focus is drawn more towards the design or the larger picture so we quite often fail to identify and isolate a hidden pattern. It relates to perception because we tend to only perceive what’s on the surface. It takes some digging to recognize where there might be an underlying message. There is more than meets the eye!

I picked hidden words as the topic of this project because I think it’s really cool how art can be used for more than just aesthetic pleasure by concealing secret messages. This practice makes art into a fun puzzle of trying to figure out if and what an artist might be trying to convey beneath the surface.