Shulang Ye

The Resolution Shop is a critical design project that explores how image clarity functions as a class signifier in digital capitalism, forming what I define as a visual hierarchy. Drawing from my personal experience with high myopia, I question whether the ability to see clearly—often perceived as neutral—is actually a system-regulated privilege.

The project includes a pixel-based interactive game, a series of zines shaped like retro devices, and a visual merchandise experience. In the game, players start with a blurry avatar and must “devour” smaller pixels to increase resolution. Higher clarity grants speed and access, while contact with larger pixels leads to failure—simulating the Matthew Effect. Through repeated user testing, I refined mechanisms to reveal how visibility is shaped by systemic rules.

The zines further critique visual norms by rejecting linear clarity in favor of pixelation, fragmentation, and noise—recasting low resolution as resistance. The project references Stuart Hall, Hito Steyerl, Baudrillard, and others to frame clarity as an ideological construct. Aimed at Gen Z, The Resolution Shop encourages viewers to rethink vision not as a neutral act, but a socially structured experience shaped by power, platforms, and control.