When I first came across Alyson Provax’s time wasting experiment on Etsy, I was at a coffeeshop and I let out a startled gasp! (and then quickly apologized to the irritated man beside me) It was like bumping into a kindred soul on the street and feeling that instant, glorious connection.
The Portland-based printmaker’s documentation on time nicely narrates my own relationship with the ticking clock. I am wildly interested in time; I obsessively think about how it works and often ponder why it sometimes rapidly speeds up for one person, yet slows down for another who occupies the same room. And then on occasion it seems to go missing, doesn’t it? Poof. It’s gone. I know that there is a 3-month period of my own life that feels unaccounted for – it’s as if it never occurred at all.
There is a wonderful interview on her time wasting experiment here. This is a great excerpt:
As the project goes on I have become more restrictive in my definition of what a waste of time is. I see it as any situation that I feel was useless or uncomfortable and offered little or no redemption. I realized early in this project that much of the time that I had casually thought of as wasted was actually pretty productive. For instance, daydreaming can be very useful, as can going to get a cup of coffee. There are just some experiences that have nothing to do with production and yet are obviously valuable.
Check out Alyson’s work and let me know what you think! I can’t wait to line my walls with her work.
S.
