"Blue Touch," The 2023 Rhoda Lubalin Fellowship Exhibition, explores the contradiction in the concept of the “perfect” human body and features work by School of Art seniors Yun Gao, Eunsoo (Grace) Lee, and Jun Min (Melody) Park. For their fellowship, they researched various body-related subjects, historical ways of measuring the body, and their application. The show aims to challenge viewers to question perceptions of the human form in order to shed light on the damaging effects of societal superiority standards.

Humans have always been fascinated by the idea of “perfection” and have sought it in various aspects of their lives, including personal qualities like intelligence, talent, and physical appearance. However, the definition of “perfection” is subjective and varies greatly based on an individual's moral values. Despite its unique nature, society still strives for, and forces a singular interpretation of the “perfect body” hoping to construct “universal standards” using mathematical and scientific methods. Biased standards have created unrealistic and often unhealthy expectations for individuals to conform to a specific image and have been used by eugenicists to justify their self-imposed superiority. Although eugenicists may be long gone, their practices are still influencing our society today, just in different forms including beauty standards. Despite all the obvious baggage, in 2023, we are still conforming to unrealistic standards based on outward appearance. Although we are the same when seen through the blue X-ray, we still struggle because of how different we may look on the outside. Let the blue light remove the exterior and reveal our hidden similarities. Let the blue expose the paradox of our prejudices.

The Rhoda Lubalin Fellowship was established in 1987 to help selected senior students explore the field of graphic design. It was endowed by Rhoda Lubalin in honor of her husband, Herb Lubalin— Cooper alumnus, and a prominent graphic designer. The fellowship is a research-based project that uses the Lubalin Study Center collection as an entry point. The fellowship recipients for 2023: Jun Min (Melody) Park, Eunsoo (Grace) Lee, and Yun Gao were granted special access to the Center to work closely with the curator and the archive coordinator to execute a unique project to make a lasting contribution to the collection.