Canals (Photo 1-4)
The Khlong Saen Saeb canal was constructed by King Rama III to expedite the transportation of soldiers and arms in his conflict with Cambodia. Now, it acts as an artery for congested traffic throughout Bangkok. The express boats run 18km, seating approximately 50 people. Hours start at 6AM and run until 7:30PM.

The canal itself has been described as toxic, a river of pollutants, and a communal toilet for Bangkok’s poor. Crew members scurry around the boat, shouting instructions, fastening ropes to the jetty at breaks.

In 1877, Giovanni Schiaparelli noticed a number of fissures and dark lines along the surface of Mars. He described them in a report as canali, Italian for the natural formation of ‘channels.’ This was misinterpreted into English as ‘canals,’ and led to a frenzied belief that aliens had constructed waterways on Mars.

It took several decades before satellites confirmed that no canals actually existed on the planet.

Mirrors (Photo 5)
The ‘Ultimate Ensemble Hypothesis of Tegmark’ suggests millions of parallel universes in conjunction with our own. Limitless possibilities mottle the libraries of our 0-1 byte universe. In one parallel universe, Heisenberg is certain. In another, Einstein developed ‘absolutivity.’ One only need look in the mirror to realize inversion is simply a matter of perspective

View the work of Angela Xu and Peter Tieryas Liu in LITnIMAGE's Spring 2011 issue