Time Capsule — part 1.
In this week’s assignment, we are asked to select several objects that could represent who we are (personality, experiences, backgrounds, cultures, and etc.), and use social media as a platform to tell a story to the audience.
The first couple of things that came to my mind are things that I have collected over the past few years: postcards from friends, flight and train tickets, museum tickets and booklets, as well as some small gifts from my friends.
I wasn’t quite sure which part to start as I have so many different categories. But thinking back the time before the pandemic, my life is more or less like a urban nomads. I have travelled, studied, and lived in many different places (due to many reasons) and those experience including people I met along the journey definitely have tremendous impacts in shaping who I am today.
This is also why I love to collect flight tickets, because we could travel back to those places many times in future (probably), but your boarding pass is only valid once — this is a metaphor to me: even if you go back to the same place later, the city itself and your experience will never be the same as your last time. It’s melancholy to think about this, but sometimes I am afraid that one day when my memories fades: if memories is the only proof of our past existence, at least I still have some physical objects (flight tickets) to help remind myself that I had lived or been to some places (especially the important ones).
Although I thought this flight tickets could be kept as evidences for pretty long period of time. But I when I looked through all these tickets again, I found some of them already faded out as well (in just a few years). The images below is an example. So is there anything else could last in time besides digital objects?
I don’t know much about photography, but over the years, I have taken lots of photos on my photo about almost everything, so I don’t forget all those experiences. But digital photos are not tangible, and it just feels different when you have something you can hold on your hand, as it feels more connected to you. I also don’t like digital cameras, because you feel you will never satisfy with a photo as you can take so many of them by just pressing the buttons. And at the end, the photos are becoming less about recording your life, but more about the visuals or making it look flawless.
So in 2019, I bought my first film cameras in life. And I totally love it! I love the way how I could roll the film by hand, treat each photo in a more personal, patient and nicer way, and seeing the result after a waiting for a couple days.
As I don’t want to forget about the places I have been to, I also don’t want to forget about those people I met along the journey. This one of the reasons why I love to write postcards and letters even in this modern times. We can easily delete messages on any digital content, but when messages came in physical form, it’s harder to delete or destroy. I want to save these precious memories of my friends and some people I met, although some of them I never met again after the journey. But keeping these postcards and letters could remind me of those wonderful people and the good time we had together.
After the pandemic, I cancelled all my travel plans, and I decided to go back to my hometown (Hainan island, a tiny island in southern china) and spend time with my lovely grandparents. It has been almost 6 years since my last visit. So I decided to collect some objects from my hometown so I will never forget where my root is no matter where I go.
These are everyday objects you can find in the town: ocean water, woods and leaves, sand, rocks and stones, air, and sunshine.
Object list
- flight tickets
- travel images
- postcards and letter from friends
- objects from my hometown
Ideas and Concepts
Thinking of using social media as a platform to tell a story to the audience. I want my audience looking at my objects in a way of being in a journey with me.
So the user will pick a boarding pass. With the flight number (as a clue), you can find the images I took in that destination. At the end of each collection of images, there is clue/image showing the envelope of a letter. With the image of the envelop, the users will find what’s inside and read the letters. These letter are from the people I met in the destination, or are important friends when I was living in that place.
