Liwen Zhang

"239:59:59"

Section MS20, Steven (Haoge) Gan

Keywords: interface, memory, machine, book

239:59:59 is a book-based work composed of ten days of diary entries and handprints, using recycled paper and tracing paper. The project examines care as a material practice — recorded through attention, repetition, and physical contact.

The work unfolds alongside a countdown device that eventually stops, leaving only the accumulated pages behind. The book does not attempt to repair or conceal damage bounding with black threads, but instead holds fragments together in a state of visible tension. Through time, touch, and gradual erasure, 239:59:59 reflects on alienation not as a rupture, but as a slow, incomplete process of stitching.