The Work
Strange Eternity is an exploration of the instability of memory rendered through a language of flickering, particulate light. The piece draws its initial breath from a 1930 poem by Jim Thompson titled A Road and a Memory, which the author described as a biography in miniature. Using custom software built in TouchDesigner, the work visualizes the human experience not as a fixed record but as a restless cloud of energy. It is a work of procedural motion where the image is constantly forming and dissolving in a state of perpetual drift.
The Narrative Arc
The sequence begins with a warm, winding path. This is a memory that feels gentle, almost idealized, before it shifts into heavier terrain of mud, effort, and heat. As the imagery tightens and the textures intensify, the road becomes less of a place and more of a pressure. These transitions echo the poem’s shift from external struggle to internal reckoning.
Midway through, the work enters a threshold space. A figure moves toward light, not as an escape but as a turn inward. This is a moment where the piece pivots from the physical to the psychological. From there, time accelerates. The final gesture of sand slipping through a hand becomes a way of thinking about erosion, memory, and the quiet realization that certain paths remain with us, unchanged, even as years fall away.
The Meaning
The work explores the tension between our fleeting personal narratives and the vast scale of time. By breaking the visual field into unstable, shimmering fragments, the piece suggests that memory is not a destination we can reach but a haunting presence that accompanies us. It is a meditation on the strange eternity of the human condition. It reflects the way our stories feel infinite while we are within them, yet eventually they erode into a larger, silent history.
Aesthetic and Process
Formally, the work uses painterly textures and granular motion to blur the line between memory and present experience. Each clip is treated less as documentation and more as an emotional state. The visual field is composed of millions of light fragments that suggest forms through density rather than solid lines. The work isn’t about a specific road so much as the imprint a road can leave, or the way a place can follow you even when you believe you’ve outgrown it.
Sound and Collaboration
The installation features a soundtrack created in collaboration with LabSynthE. Prior to the project’s debut, the laboratory collected readings of Thompson’s poem from a variety of participants. These recorded voices form the sonic backbone of the piece, turning the biography in miniature into a collective oral history. The layering of these diverse voices creates a haunting atmosphere where the poem is no longer a single perspective but a shared human echo.
Selected Installations
Grotte du Lazaret | Nice, France
For this site-specific iteration, the work was projected within a prehistoric cave environment. The limestone walls of the cave did not just host the projection but actively reshaped it. The digital light was forced to settle into old fissures and wrap around mineral deposits, creating a physical dialogue between modern noir and prehistoric deep time. In this context, the tension between the fleeting patterns of light and the endurance of the stone became a central element of the experience.
Credits
- Visual Design: Jen de Leon
- Sound Curation: LabSynthE
- Sound Design: Frank Dufour
- Installation Support: Emmanuel Desclaux
- Poetry: Jim Thompson (1930)
Jen de Leon 