So my thesis looks at temporal duration as a part of communication design.
I’m arguing that how long a system holds what it receives is not just a technical or aesthetic choice, but also something ethical and communicative.
This project has two works that sit on opposite ends of a spectrum between disappearance and preservation.
One is Breath Café, a mobile app that visualizes breathing, but only for about eight seconds before everything disappears with no record left.
The other is Eternal Bouquet, a sculptural piece where flowers at their peak bloom are permanently preserved in layers of resin.
I used a Research through Design approach, so I actually made the work first, and then the theory came out of making. The ideas didn’t come before—they emerged through the process.
From that, I developed something I call the Sedimentation Model. It’s a five-layer framework that describes how moments persist. I use geological sedimentation as a metaphor, so instead of thinking about time as something that flows, I think of it as something that accumulates.
This model also connects interface theory with physical materials and space. So I’m treating sculpture as a kind of communication system, almost like a screen-based interface, but in a physical form.
What I found is that permanence and ephemerality aren’t just opposite ends of a line. They actually create completely different ways of paying attention.
And finally, the relationship between these two works is important too. Because they sit on opposite ends of preservation, they actually create meaning together that neither one creates alone.
So the Sedimentation Model is not really an ending. It’s more like a starting point—a way to give language to design decisions that usually happen without one.
06060chloec.framer.website/works/the-linger