Sonder is almost the opposite of solipsism, the idea that the external world and other minds cannot beknown and might not exist outside one’s own mind. Sonder is defined as the realization that eachrandom passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own in which you are not only not centralbut may not exist at all.The pattern of shapes in the background of this piece gives me the impression of an aptly vague andaffable emoji figure. Lighthearted or overused as they may be, I think the popularity of these visualimages as additions to (or substitutions for) our written communication evinces the kind of shocking,even sorrowful, affect of sonder and the inadequacies of words alone to secure knowledge of oneanother.