When I was very young I had a perverse fascination with the TV guide that came bundled with the Toronto Star. Every weekend when it arrived I would scour the mini-magazine and comb through the schedule grid for each night to the point where my hands were covered in newsprint. There was something fascinating about seeing these programming streams all lined up, blocks of time running concurrently and into one another, sitcom plots summarized in twelve words - such order!

Television was a much simpler 57 channel universe back then and it was possible to consolidate an entire evening of programming onto a single page.

This nostalgia for the structure of the TV guide as a printed artifact (rather than screen-based menu system) is at the center of Eleanor Cleverly's CM Guide. With this project Cleverly has used the "graphic standards" of the TV guide to chart recorded human history - from cave drawings through Barack Obama's presidential victory. The work was produced last fall at The New School and Cleverly describes her goals for the undertaking as

...wanting to describe the changes and evolution of media' impact in a way that did justice to the essence of my generation. We are a generation sat in front of the television set... The TV Guide offered a way to schedule our lives around media and media around us. To chart our relationship with sitcoms and news hours and soap operas throughout the week. It was, at the same time, both static and ever changing, as is the complex history of communication.

This detail view is almost legible. You can see that, beyond the expected chronology, Cleverly has categorized certain events and individuals as P (influential person), G (pertaining to the government) and T (technological development).

Cleverly has a brief post on CM Guide on her blog with a link to a large browsable version - take a closer look.