"A DAY OF ONE THOUSAND YEARS" - a Pop-up Book Dedicated to Long Now Foundation

This pop-up book is inspired by the Long Now Foundation's 10,000 Year Clock. The Long Now Foundation is made of scientists and designers who foster long term thinking through design and invention. Their 10,000 Year Clock was built with the intention of it being able to run autonomously and accurately over the span of 10,000 years, which best exemplifies the methodology behind all the Long Now projects: a belief in the probability for human to reach out to one another regardless of the time and age they live in.

"A Day of One Thousand Years" tells three stories of how characters from different times (or with different ways of understanding time) strive to connect to one another, by using futuristic cross-space devices that capture, revert, or create sensation and experiences. Each spread is a different tale exploring the theme, which, when put together, form into a bigger story about the common living of human in the morning, noon and evening.

A pop-up book serves as the ideal medium for the multi-faceted aspect of fables that reflect a liquid sense of space and time. The first level of the tale is illustrated to seem self-evident, however, upon pulling a tab or turning over a flap, the initial story comes to mean something different altogether.

The structure of the book demonstrates how a physical interface reinforces an elaborated sequence through the participation of the user, and the narrative twists coincide with the joy of tangible acts of discovery.

Below is an application demonstrating the physical interface. You can download it here.

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Transcript of the story

Bottom Right:

Stefanie woke up from a long dream which had been lasting for 30 years, ever since she was hit by a car on her way to school. She felt herself born again, though at the age of 51. She heard her father reading aloud. It was a story, a story which went on for so long, that penetrated through her dream every night, for 7215 nights.
That was how the story started:

The story underneath:

Image of Father
the man sitting by the bed is Stephanie's father. He used to talk to her everyday before he died 10 years ago. and the whole talk is documented in a holographic image by a special camera designed by a studio called The Long Now, who dedicates to build a human connection across space and time through long-term thinking in design.

Up Left:

William will never forget that night, when thousands of people gathered around the big clock and counted down for the New Year. He shouldered his way to the center of the crowd, when his watch rang again. It was a strange number.
"Hi, it's William," answered he.
"Now William," said the voice of a young lady, "your turn has come. We are supposed to meet at 12 noon 'The Cave'."
"Excuse me," said William, deeply confused, "I don't get what you're talking about. Are you sure you are calling the right person, William Cliff?"
"Yes. Nothing is more certain than that," answered the voice, unassailably.
William barely had any sleep that night, with his mind paralyzed by the girl's call. Her voice sounded strangely familiar and uncannily intimate.
It was 12 o'clock sharp. William had already seated himself in "The Cave", a cafe near his house.

The story underneath:

The cell phone watch
Imagine some relationship that one may have throughout their life, and even to the next generation. People preserve those relationships with the cell phone watch, something you can have for your entire life. The watch William wears was inherited from his father, which has the potential to last for 1000 year as well. It also have the function of automatically dial a number once the timer ends. You may not reach that person if you set the timer for over 100 years. But in the case of this story, it was made totally possible.

Right:

"The moment I saw her stepping into the place I was aware I know her. But when? And where? I ca’t remember but definitely she can. She travels through time in a way she wish she didn’t. The world ages 11 years in what passes for her 1 day. Every morning she wakes up, it is 11 years later. Long long ago she fell in love with Christopher Cliff, my great-great-great-grandfather. But he couldn’t wait for her for long 11 years just to see her on next day. However, for the past 700 years, Nicole has been doing something amazing and profound for our family, even before she met Christopher. The secret is in that box. "

The story underneath:

"Nicole show me the 'magic box' which preserved the voice of a language dating back 700 years. My ancestor spoke that language but our language doesn't have a script. Nicole has been visiting one member of our family every 11 years. Each time she gave them the 'magic box' so that they can learn the language and pass it forward to their descendants, through telling stories. The box has a specially designed chamber, in which the sound can resonate for hundreds of years. This way the voice of the storyteller becomes actualized once the box is opened.

The 1000 year clock
This was an unusual New Year's Eve. People gathered at the plaza not only to count down the last seconds of year 3001, but to memorize the miraculous 1,000 year clock, built by Long-now foundation 800 years ago. When it was discovered, it still works and is only 1 second slower than their current time. People are not sure whether it was the clock that became slow or their own measurement of time had gone 1 second too fast. At that midnight they all adjusted their watch 1 second slower, in celebration of the discovery of the amazing clock, and also, the wisdom of their ancestors.

Bottom Left:

William drove slowly on the way home, inadvertently prolonging the time while he enjoyed the sunset of Los Angeles, which he seldom cared about before that day. "All our life is merely a flint of the universe," he thought, "few promises are still kept after a decade and 'true loves' are just short chapters of crisscrossing lives between two mortal beings. "
There was an elder lady moving slowly forward on a wheel chair at the crossroad. She was looking from side to side, up and down, in the midst of mundane buildings of downtown Los Angeles. She was smiling and seems mesmerized.

The story underneath:

The elder lady's name is Stephanie. She woke up from a long dream which had been lasting for 30 years, ever since she was hit by a car on her way to school. She felt herself born again, though at the age of 51. Apart from other new-borns however, she had some prelife memories, and they were made clear with the glassesl she wore, which enables her to travel back through times. The scientists at Long Now Foundation built a high resolution model of the entire city of Los Angeles and installed it into the optical, which are constantly changing, just like a endlessly long movie. Playing back 30 years ago, Stephanie saw the old streets again. She was ready to start her new life. Not in reality but in the movie.

Documented process of making the book

Documented process of writing the story