Time + Space by Ken Leslie
In Time + Space, we lose all semblance of the codex form. Instead, the book form is a continuous ring of wedge-shaped pages, each one showing a photograph of a backyard. The artist created a panorama by taking pictures one week apart from each other, in a slightly shifted subject around his yard as the seasons passed in one year, making this a journey in time and space. The pictures themselves give no sense of beginning or ending because of the continuous, circular form, but words on the outer and inner rim do give some sense of where to begin and end.
This ambiguous start and finish pushes against the idea of the journey that we are accustomed to. In the books we have looked at previously, there has been a definitive end; even if the journey has not ended, the book has:
- In Passage, we know that the end of the book does not signify the end of the journey for the slaves, but the codex form provides a definitive finishing point for a reader.
- In Parallax, the two journeys reach the same definitive end point, meeting together at the end of the book form. Again, we know the story does not end here, but our access to it does.
- In 19.06_26.08.1945, there is a definitive ending. With a clear geographical/temporal beginning and ending point, we know that the entire journey that Botto is leading us on through images is eventually leading towards a final destination that we are moving towards. When we begin reading, we know and expect that we will reach it; it's our goal.
In Time + Space, none of these traits are present. Our expectation for a journey to reach some sort of ending is confounded by the circular book form. This structure provides an outlet for Leslie's ideas that a codex would not have been able to provide in nearly the same way. The reader trades out flipping pages for rotating the ring. Because of this, the whole journey is laid out before them. They can see the entirety of the journey without waiting, flipping pages to see what the end holds.
Unlike the other journeys we have seen so far, where the characters are the ones moving and journeying, for Leslie, the world travelled around him. This journey through time and space was one that we all could see, so the reader is more connected to this than they might be to another person's journey.
