The Shining Matter

An informing ritual which recalls our natural awareness of time through folding dialogues with the Sun




Year  |  2017
Type | paper sulpture, sundial object as informed matter
Location | interior spaces with sunlight
Material | paper, copper, metal, plastic, rock, acrylic paint, sunlight


It invites one to use, to shape, and to inform. As a time matter, it aims to turn the sun drawing into a dialogue between the human the Sun, time and matter. 

Drawing with the Sun thus becomes the daily practice.
As introducing the sunshine to the interior, we inform the time matter in colours & patterns, bring consciousness of seasons into our life.





Nowadays, since our life is calculated by clocks, measured by numbers on calendars, We miss the knowing of time and senses about days, seasons and years.

Derived from the astronomical observation of the Sun path, the project focuses on connecting individual daily practice with nature. The design develops a sculpture—informed with patterns and colors—that reflects the yearly time path with the projection of the Sun.



Information—regarding how human achieve it—is social & cultural.
Matter carries the heaviest concern or the opposite, the information & the act of informing.

In East Asian religious tradition, a specific paper folding is a way of sending/informing messages to God & nature. Here paper material is informed by colours & patterns in a specific order indicating the messages from seasons & the Sun.

Inspired by the lunisolar calendar—a system of encoding and decoding knowledge from East Asian culture, the project includes three phases: to perceive the Sun path, to encode & decode through handcrafting, to engage with Sun drawings as visualized dialogues.






The Shining Matter (2017), a research project by Szu-Yi Wang


_Soundtrack | The Album Leaf - Windows
















© SZU-YI WANG. 2022