ljwkelly

A Tale As Old As Time

2023

During my overseas exchange, we were tasked to choose something to archive. My chosen topic was felt time, which is how people understand and experience time.

Time is a universal condition, we all understand time by looking at a clock. But why does time feel both slow and fast? If the time we feel is subjective, can there ever be an accurate depiction of time? When do we want to slow time down and when do we hope for time to move faster? What does time say about the human condition?

A Tale As Old As Time is the outcome of my findings. It is a 126-page physical and digital archive of humanity’s relationship with time, told via the lens of art, literature, film, songs, essays, internet posts, advertisements etc.

Details

This book was printed with 80g/m² and 120g/ m² 인의예지 구름 paper from 인더페이퍼 을지로, and uses exposed spine binding. Only 1 physical copy of the book exists. Exposed spine binding was chosen to show the gradual change in time across the pages. The cover is printed with white ink on black paper.


Book Flipthrough

The book is separated into 24 hours, with each hour showing a different theme. A vertical index on the left allows the reader to navigate these chapters easily.

A horizontal line appears across every page, indicating the year of work. As the reader flips through the book, variations of the horizontal timeline appear infrequently, challenging expressions of linear time.


Interactive Website

A digital version of the book (above) was done on Adobe XD. Using After Effects, I created multiple clocks with varied expressions of time as the main landing animation.

To browse each individual page, scroll down past the landing animation, click on a chapter and start navigating the pages.