Envy, rendered as a scene: viewed from a dark street at night, a row of apartment windows in the building opposite, each warmly lit and showing fragments of family life inside. In the foreground, out of focus and in near-darkness, the edge of an unlit window frame from which the scene is being watched

Resignation, rendered as a scene: an empty bus stop late at night, the departure board showing the last bus has gone, one person seated on the bench with a bag on their lap, not looking at their phone, not looking anywhere in particular. Rain-slick empty road. The posture is settled rather than distressed

Relief, rendered as a scene: a small entryway after a storm, one pair of soaked shoes kicked off at angles on the mat, a dripping umbrella collapsed against the wall, a wet coat slung over a hook still shedding drops. Warm light from the room beyond, dark rain visible through the door glass

Close up of an apartment front door with a clearly visible round doorbell button beside it. A hand is raised toward that button, index finger extended, stopped a few centimeters short and held in mid-air. The gap between fingertip and button is clearly visible and is the subject. The finger is NOT touching or pressing the button

Regret, rendered as a scene: an open desk drawer containing a thick stack of sealed envelopes, all addressed in the same handwriting to the same name, none of them stamped, the paper yellowed at different rates showing they were written across many years. A pen rests on top

Longing, rendered as a scene: a small kitchen table set for two with matching bowls, chopsticks and a folded napkin at each place, but only one chair pulled out and only one bowl used. The second setting is spotless and undisturbed, clearly laid out from habit. Warm evening light, no people

Reverse-playback footage of a waterfall, played backwards so the motion runs the wrong way: the churning pool at the base draws itself smooth and a rope of water lifts off the surface, travelling up the cliff face and disappearing over the top ledge. Loose spray converges and climbs with it. The surrounding rock, ferns and light stay completely normal and forward-running. Static locked-off camera

Sand flowing upward through an hourglass: fine sand rises from the lower chamber through the narrow waist and accumulates in the upper bulb, individual grains climbing against gravity in a steady stream, the mound in the top building higher while the bottom empties. The hourglass itself sits still. Static locked-off camera

A shadow that moves independently: a person stands perfectly still in an empty white gallery under hard overhead light, but their cast shadow on the floor slowly turns, stretches and walks a few steps away from their feet before pausing and looking back. The person does not move at all. Static locked-off camera

A room where gravity points sideways: an ordinary living room in which every loose object falls toward the left wall instead of the floor. Liquid pours horizontally from a tipped glass and pools vertically against the wall. The furniture is bolted in place. A person stands braced with feet on the left wall as if it were the ground. Static locked-off camera

Smoke running backwards: a thin plume of grey smoke retreats downward into an extinguished candle wick, the dispersed cloud at the top gathering and contracting into a tighter thread as it descends, finally drawing itself into the wick which then glows and reignites. Static locked-off camera

Rain frozen in mid-air: thousands of raindrops hang perfectly motionless above a city street, suspended at every height like glass beads on invisible threads. A person walks through them and the drops they push aside drift slowly apart and then hang still again in their new positions. Static locked-off camera

A stairway public library in a hillside Korean neighbourhood: one of the long steep concrete stairways typical of old hillside districts, its side walls fitted with weatherproof book alcoves and small reading nooks with benches at each landing, warm lights coming on at dusk. Residents climbing past, one person sitting reading. Corrugated roofs and tangled wires around

An observatory built into a rice terrace in rural Korea: a low concrete dome emerging from the flooded paddies, its curved roof mirrored in the water alongside the sky, narrow raised paths leading to it between the terraces. A farmer walking one of the paths at dusk. The dome's slit open toward the darkening sky

A night market suspended under a Korean highway overpass: food stalls, plastic stools and strings of bulbs hung from the concrete underside of the elevated road, the market occupying the leftover space between support columns. Steam, red plastic chairs, handwritten menu boards. Traffic rumbling overhead. Warm chaotic light against raw grey concrete

A record shop inside a hanok: a traditional Korean wooden house with paper doors slid open, the interior fitted with floor-to-ceiling vinyl record crates along the wooden walls, a turntable and tube amplifier on a low floor table, cushions instead of chairs. The courtyard visible through the open doors with a persimmon tree. Warm lamp light on aged wood

A bathhouse carved into a coastal cliff on the Korean east coast: steaming stone pools cut into the rock face at several levels, open to the sea, wooden walkways and handrails connecting them, steam drifting off the water into cold air. Waves breaking on the rocks directly below the lowest pool. Winter dawn

A village built across the rooftops of a Korean apartment complex: small houses, vegetable plots, laundry lines and narrow alleys occupying the flat roofs of five adjacent towers, connected by slender footbridges spanning between buildings. Residents chatting, a dog, potted peppers. The ordinary city visible far below. Late afternoon, entirely plausible and lived-in

A reading pavilion built along a mountain ridge in Korea: a narrow timber and concrete structure following the spine of the ridge for a hundred meters, one long glass wall opening to a sea of layered blue mountains and morning cloud below. Bookshelves line the opposite solid wall. Hikers' boots at the entrance. Traditional Korean roof proportions abstracted into modern form

A greenhouse built inside an abandoned Seoul subway station: the platform and tracks converted into raised planting beds thick with ferns and vegetables, grow lights hanging from the tunnel ceiling where the catenary used to run, condensation on the old tiled walls, the original station name sign still mounted and legible above the greenery