Time Sound – Prologue
Exploring the Origins of Time and Sound
The Time Sound series begins with an attempt to visualize and sonify time—an immaterial concept—through perceptual experiences. This Time Sound-Prologue page presents the conceptual foundations of that exploration: a collection of drawings that investigate the essence of time and music.
What Is Time, Then? What Is Music, Then?
What Is Time, Then? and What Is Music, Then? are mind map-style drawings that pose fundamental questions about the nature of time and sound and examine their interrelations.
In the upper-left corner of What Is Music, Then?, a small handwritten note reads, “Ich ahnte doch, dass sie etwas mit Musik zu tun hat” (“I somehow sensed that it had something to do with music”).
This sentence marks the very moment—on February 4, 2016—when the artist discovered the concept of the circle of fifths in a music theory book and experienced a Eureka moment: the realization that time could be visualized and expressed musically.
Clock Circle with Circle of Fifths
The Clock Circle with Circle of Fifths is a central conceptual drawing series in the Time Sound project. These works overlay the 24-hour clock with the circle of fifths from Western music theory, uncovering structural parallels between temporal cycles and tonal relationships.
The first drawing (left) presents a raw and analytical sketch in pencil, where musical tones are mapped to each hour of the day. This version divides time into 24 segments, connecting the tonal circle to daily rhythm, and marking the foundational idea of relating sound structures to temporal measurement. The annotations “Tag” (day) and “Nacht” (night) suggest a duality and transition central to natural cycles.
The second drawing (right) evolves this idea further: the radial form is refined and enhanced with seasonal color schemes—green for spring, cool grey for winter—extending the clock from a single day to a full year. It transforms the temporal logic of the day into an annual rhythm, illustrating the harmony between musical structure and natural recurrence.
Together, these two works explore how time and sound share geometric and cyclical qualities, inviting us to not only see time but also to hear it. They mark an essential moment in the artist’s process—bridging music theory, astronomy, and the perception of time through visual art.
From Grids to Lunar Structures
These two works illustrate the evolution of Soo Youn Kim’s exploration of time—from abstract rhythmic grids to spatial calendar systems rooted in lunar movement.
The first drawing (24 Solar Term) is based on the traditional Korean calendar, dividing the year into 24 segments. Using grid paper, the artist maps out time as color-coded data, transforming seasonal divisions into musical and visual rhythm. It forms the conceptual backbone for later Moon Calendar works.
The second drawing (Template for Moon Calendar – 31 Days) is a printed structural template that visualizes a full month as a linear time sequence bent into an elliptical form. Day 1 and 31 align with new moons, while day 15 marks the full moon, visually representing the lunar cycle as a continuum.
This template was later used in the production of Moon Calendar, Berlin 2017, marking the beginning of the artist’s lunar calendar works.
Together, they reveal a shift from measured abstraction to experiential temporality, laying the structural foundation for the Time Soundseries.
Introduction to the concept and visual-music structure of Time Sound (English).
Introduction to the concept and visual-music structure of Time Sound (German).
Artist Notes
February 2016.
The phrase “In the beginning was the sound” had already taken root in my mind, but another one kept circling around it—“the sound of time.”
I was constantly trying to connect the origin of the universe with the beginning of sound.
Drawing after drawing, sketch after sketch, I tried to give form to that connection, to imagine how time might have begun with sound.I remember those days clearly—days filled with questions, doubts, and quiet obsession.
How can I relate the beginning of time to the beginning of sound?
And then, finally, I found it.
As if my persistence had summoned it, I came across a small, unassuming book on music theory—one among many I had borrowed from the music library.
But this one held the key.It was the first time I encountered the concept of the circle of fifths.
Had I studied piano a bit longer as a child, I might have come across it earlier.
But perhaps it had to arrive this way—through searching, through drawing, through listening.
From that moment on, I began to draw in earnest.
Lines and shapes became containers for my thoughts—links between time and rhythm, the sun and the moon, cycles and sound.
I didn’t yet have answers, only a need to give form to something that was always shifting, always just beyond reach.These drawings—mind maps, radial diagrams, geometric scores—weren’t meant to be finished works.
They were traces of thought, sketches drawn in the margins of time.
Some looked like calendars, others like clock faces.
Some followed the logic of physics; others, the rhythm of memory.Looking back now, this collection feels like the ground floor of everything that followed.
The Time Sound series began here—not with sound, but with silence, with diagrams, and with the quiet desire to understand how time could be shaped.