This MDES research, exhibition, and written thesis investigates the loss, preservation, and visual reconstruction of memories from my childhood in Shanghai and within the context of rapid urban development. Through the lens of personal experience, art-based research and artistic practice, this research examines how familiar urban scenes evoke emotional, personal, and intergenerational memories. The research is grounded in my own family history. Using art-based research methods, I combine autobiographical writing, oral history, family remembrances, and archival materials with textual and spatial analysis to situate personal and intergenerational memory within broader processes of urban change in Shanghai. Artistic practice forms a core component of the methodology for this research: Through visual storytelling across graphic design, Chinese scroll painting, watercolor illustration, and hand-drawn animation, this research explores how composition and color of a painting can resonate with the audience. The artwork translates remembered experiences and turns them into immersive encounters that invite empathy, resonance, and critical reflection.
Keywords: Urbanization and Memory Loss, Family History and Identity, Abstract and Figurative Art, Practice-based Research, Scroll design, Hand-drawn animation, Interdisciplinary-media Storytelling