PRESENT
Commissioned by Dib Museum
The punch card machine remains a nostalgic reminder of my after-school part-time jobs in Japan, where I recorded my working hours on a time card.
Titled “Present,” the punch card machine creates a participatory experience that invites guests to generate their own memory of the exhibition. Each card is a small artwork visitors can keep — a tangible trace of their time within the space. Through the window cut into the card, guests can look up at the sky, carrying that fleeting view with them as part of their memory.
Visitors are invited to pick up a card and insert it into the machine, which stamps the date and time. The card becomes their personal fragment of the timeline — a record of the moment they encountered the work and the sky.
The concept resonates with the words often attributed to Bil Keane:
“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift — that is why it is called the present.”
On view at DIB Bangkok Museum’s opening exhibition, from December 2025 through August 2026.
Machine design and fabrication by Nomena Inc.
