Neon Thoughts presents a contemplative examination of media as living organism within contemporary urban environments. Created during my undergraduate studies at CalArts, this experimental animation transforms the static commercial iconography of neon signage into breathing, autonomous entities that inhabit the liminal spaces of our everyday consciousness.

The work operates as both philosophical inquiry and aesthetic meditation, investigating how media permeates every facet of our lived experience, influencing not merely our consumption patterns but the fundamental architectures of perception and cognition. Through a series of carefully choreographed vignettes, each neon sign functions as a cryptic messenger, offering fragments of meaning that collectively blur the boundaries between the imaginary and the real, the technological and the analog, the natural and the urban.

This animated short received recognition as a Vimeo Staff Pick during my undergraduate tenure, marking an early achievement in my exploration of how animation can serve as a vehicle for examining our relationship with ubiquitous media. The work's subsequent journey—from the CalArts Experimental Animation Program showcase at REDCAT to installations at the Neon Museum in Las Vegas and the Seoul Museum of Art on CRT television arrays—mirrors the very phenomenon it depicts: the nomadic circulation of visual culture across unexpected contexts and geographies.

In an era where neon signage itself has become an endangered medium, Neon Thoughts serves as both archive and prophecy, preserving the aesthetic language of a disappearing urban semiotics while proposing new frameworks for understanding how media continues to evolve as a living, breathing presence in our collective imagination.