Why Time Moves Slower in Winter
A sequel to the sold out spoken word video poem ‘Why Autumn is a Sad Season’ by David Jones, internationally best selling author and owner of the @storydj Instagram account followed by over 280,000 poetry lovers from around the world.
Part of the four seasons collection, ‘Why Time Moves Slower in Winter’ is an experimental poem that works across multiple mediums through time. It combines classic archive footage from the past with original words and then immortalises them both using modern technology: the blockchain. The aim of the video poem project is to examine how old footage can be given new life and context within a new artistic medium.
How can we use memories of the past, captured on film but long since lapsed into historical archive? Is this footage still relevant? What feelings does it evoke today when paired with original poetry and minted using a new medium? And in answering this question, how do we use and experience our own memories? What can we do with nostalgia? Is it condemned to the past or can it be revitalised through art?
A mingling of past, present and future technology with original words, the nostalgic sensation of the poem harks back to the early days of film, while the medium of NFT looks towards the future. The poem explores how we yearn for the past, even though we know that those days (and the people associated with them) can never return. Time moves slower in winter because we dream of spring times long faded and those dreams, no matter how sweet, will always remain unfulfilled.
The poem is narrated by its author and each line appears on screen along with the footage.
Poem reads:
Why time moves slower in winter.
My heart is a clock In an empty house, Keeping time with you Even though you’re Long gone.
Through dusty corridors, Frost stopped gardens, And frozen patios Where only memories grow
I think of you And wait, for days Like faded polaroids Of a spring time long ago.