"Ephemeris" was designed in response to a brief which asked for a technological intervention which would "enhance or add meaning to an everyday activity or experience".

My engagement with the brief was inspired by reflections on my own dependence on digital technology as a memory store- a kind of external hard drive for my brain.
Whenever I have a thought I don't want to lose- a task, for example- I jot it down into my notes app.
This creates a disorganised and cluttered system which necessitates constantly checking my phone to remind myself what not to forget (An anxiety inducing repetitive behaviour), and provides very little satisfying resolution when a task is completed- it's just one unending, constantly growing linear document.

I began by investigating data physicalisation, and how I could "ground" the passing of time, or an impending due date into something visually reference-able at quick glance. It felt important that the solution I created had a physicality to it, that it was reassuringly tangible in comparison to the ephemerality of digital data.

I settled on a printer, which would output tasks as they were entered into the user's phone, keeping the format of the linear flow, but instead with a countdown train of days towards the task's due date.
When a task was completed, or if a note was to be made, the user could make pencil marks on the paper.
I wanted to create something that could become a piece of desktop furniture.

I made the first prototypes using cardboard, to get an idea of the dimensions I wanted, to test out features, and to develop the mechanism by which the paper could be extruded and move across the box. At this stage I also wrote the code for the device in Arduino.

The completed product- Laser cut wood, a carbon printer, and an Arduino.
I named the project "Ephemeris" to capture the frustrating fleetingness of intangible digital data.