The Imagery from Calligraphy: Encoding and Decoding Pictographs Via Interactive Artistic Exploration 31

The Imagery from Calligraphy is a practice-based art research project that investigates intersemiotic translation between seal-script form and situated meaning. We propose a bidirectional translation loop: world-to-script encoding abstracts depictive experience into graphic signs, while script-to-world decoding reactivates written forms as imagistic, cultural, and procedural scenes. We stage Xuan-paper making as the situated world and curate 23 verb-based semantic targets, each anchored by a seal-script character. Two mirrored works operationalize the loop: an immersive virtual-production performance film that traces observation, embodied imitation, and inscription; and a writing-driven interactive installation where participants’ spatial strokes are recognized and mapped to semantic navigation of craft actions. Across both works, we examine how form, body, and medium co-produce meaning, and how recognition can negotiate tensions between standardization and individual variation. We further propose an Experiential Archive model for digital heritage that shifts from static documentation to participatory and generative access.