Publication 2026
Drift Islands
iii knots
Sun Woo Yoon, Qiutong Zhai, James Jack
published by islanders (HK)
Sun Woo Yoon, Qiutong Zhai, James Jack
published by islanders (HK)
Drift Islands is an ecofiction publication of artistic writings that follows a crab across islands in Japan, Hong Kong, and Korea. The book combines experiements based on real and imagined conversations with seaweed, crows, cats, jellyfish, crabs, and humans on each island. The book serves as an archive of our continuous conversations searching for lessons floating in the sea drift of the tides between islands. A triangular method of co-creation flourishes via our asynchronous collaboration in historical, imaginary and real world islands. Central to this book is ecological thinking in networks and processes, while understanding that things exist in constant spatial and temporal relation, currents and waves of activity between crabs and humans.
FROM ISLANDERS:
This book reflects on island life as a shared ecology shaped by currents, migrations, and human activity, inviting readers to think and feel beyond a human-centered perspective.
The cover and back cover form a shift in perspective: on the front, we see a crab from a human perspective, on the back, we see the island with how the crabs perceive it. Illustrated by the artists, this gesture is more than a visual design, it is an invitation to reposition ourselves, to step away from familiar human viewpoints and enter another living beings on the islands’ way of sensing the world. Across the book, the left pages present the artists’ human perspectives, the right pages express the sensibilities of crabs, while the voice of the sea flows through the pages, connecting moments of residency, research, and exchange. As I read, I gradually realize that I do not need to approach this book through habitual, human-centered modes of “understanding.” The text is no longer something waiting to be decoded, but becomes a form of
shifting perception—sometimes slow, sometimes fragmented, sometimes impossible to fully grasp. As I begin to let go of expectations for a singular narrative or clear conclusions and it slightly changed how I see island life.
This book reflects on island life as a shared ecology shaped by currents, migrations, and human activity, inviting readers to think and feel beyond a human-centered perspective.
The cover and back cover form a shift in perspective: on the front, we see a crab from a human perspective, on the back, we see the island with how the crabs perceive it. Illustrated by the artists, this gesture is more than a visual design, it is an invitation to reposition ourselves, to step away from familiar human viewpoints and enter another living beings on the islands’ way of sensing the world. Across the book, the left pages present the artists’ human perspectives, the right pages express the sensibilities of crabs, while the voice of the sea flows through the pages, connecting moments of residency, research, and exchange. As I read, I gradually realize that I do not need to approach this book through habitual, human-centered modes of “understanding.” The text is no longer something waiting to be decoded, but becomes a form of
shifting perception—sometimes slow, sometimes fragmented, sometimes impossible to fully grasp. As I begin to let go of expectations for a singular narrative or clear conclusions and it slightly changed how I see island life.
WHERE YOU CAN FIND US
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platform3 (JP)
Nowhere Tokyo Book Store (JP)
wagamamabooks (JP)
Nam Wan Bookshop (HK)
Hunter bookstore (HK)
Nowhere Tokyo Book Store (JP)
wagamamabooks (JP)
Objectifs (SG)
Serious books (shop) (SG)Nam Wan Bookshop (HK)
Hunter bookstore (HK)
