Campus Mood: A Girl Hugging a Basketball Turns and Smiles in an Empty Gym

In a small campus broadcast room a girl sits on the floor holding a mini-DV camera and talking to the lens, warm desk lamp light from the side, old audio gear behind her, grain and slight oversaturation like a message recorded for someone in the future. A talk-to-camera setup adds suspense. Image 4 of Zhao Yifan's set.

Back in the present, a boy sits alone in the empty broadcast room holding a mini-DV camera with the screen flipped toward himself, his thumb just pressing REC, a small red light in his eye and old tape cases on the desk. The set's closing image. Image 8 of Zhao Yifan's set.

In the same corridor a girl stops and turns to look straight into the lens, not startled, with a knowing calm and a trace of a smile, her outline burned into a silhouette by backlit windows. Shows how one frozen direct gaze can create an eerie but restrained sense of recognition. Image 3 of Zhao Yifan's set.