Collection in Focus: Mungo Thomson

For nearly a decade, Mungo Thomson (US, b. 1969) has been creating a series of stop-motion animations that use reference encyclopedias, photo books, how-to guides, and production manuals as their raw material. The resulting videos, titled Time Life (2022) after their primary reference, showcase a wide array of human activity.

Published from 1961 to 2003, the original Time-Life Books promised readers a way to “be an instant expert.” The publications shared knowledge on a range of subjects, from cooking to exercise, planting a garden to tying knots. Thomson considers those volumes, with their thousands of images, “an early analog internet.”

Through high-resolution photography of the pages, Thomson brings the books to life. Set to a driving musical score, images flash by in a propulsive rhythm. Digitization becomes a method of transformation, the starting point for a conversation about history, cultural material, technology, and perception.