Created during my journey through the western regions of Sichuan, Time Recollection was inspired by local landscapes and Tibetan culture. The work explores time, memory, culture, and existence through an alternative narrative structure—guiding viewers into a nonlinear, multidimensional perception of time using abstract imagery and surreal compositions.
The Moment That Started It: Time in the Landscape
Before filming, I researched local cultural understandings of time in Western Sichuan and Tibetan regions, looking for a language beyond clocks and linear storytelling. The project began as a question: how can a place hold time—through matter, gesture, and repetition?
Key Metaphor: Mani Heaps as “Time Witnesses”
In Sichuan–Tibet regions, Mani heaps are formed through repeated ritual actions—stones added over time, growing taller as prayers accumulate. Standing beside them, I felt they were not only symbols of faith, but also recorders and witnesses of time—an experience that directly shaped how I wanted to build this film through image + sound.
Narrative Structure: Chapters of Time-Feeling
Time is expressed through subtle, almost invisible changes—wind across surfaces, the movement of sunlight, repeated frames and transitions—building a rhythm that lets viewers sense duration rather than “understand” it through plot.
Image Language: Micro-Changes Instead of “Events”
I planned to film subtle changes—wind moving across Mani stones and the movement of sunlight—as a quiet way to symbolize time passing. Through abstract imagery and surreal composition, the work builds perception through rhythm—where each frame becomes a journey, and each scene a re-exploration of space.
Sound as a Second Timeline
Ambient sounds—wind, sutra, and distant chanting—are recorded and synchronized with the image to intensify the sensation of time passing. Sound is treated as “time material”: its layering and shifts support memory, emotion, and the feeling of duration.
Why Multi-screen: Time Exists in Parallel
Multi-screen narrative influenced how I present time: different things can happen in different places at the same time, and showing multiple images simultaneously makes time feel present as a lived dimension—not just a story device.
Iteration: From Repetition to Interaction
After feedback that the beginning contained too many repetitive snow mountain shots, I explored interactivity as a way to break monotony and increase engagement, linking time to the flowing nature of water. I tested a simple TouchDesigner hand-tracking plugin that enables quick camera–hand interaction without external devices, and used it to create a direct interaction between the viewer’s hand and the moving image—an attempt to “touch” what is always passing.
