shi jian: time

"shi jian: time," at its core, "consists of Hansen's personal media archive of six months spent living in Beijing – a database of over 1200 images and 103 videos. The individual images are not wildly different from those populating Facebook or Flickr. They encapsulate familiar domestic and touristic scenes, the rituals of daily life and captured locales. Yet the interface design brings the data structure to form in precise and conceptually loaded ways, intent on shaking these images free from the conceit of the virtual album or tour. Rather, it activates the archive across multiple axes, allowing the user to sort the collection by date, place, quality of light, p.o.v. and type of time. These methods of visualization – from a timeline to a gorgeous color-coded interpretation of light sources – both organize and distance the photographs, ideally opening the user up to an experience of the heterogeneity of temporality. As such, Hansen's project seeks to wrench what might seem a personal archive of mediated memory toward a robust engagement with the very nature of time and transition, allowing for diverse retemporalizations." – Tara McPherson, Vectors Editor