Author Robert Hassan believes that we are ‘trapped in a digital prison of constant distraction’, and that the time we spend on screens is draining more from us than hours in the day. With the increasing amount of attention that digital devices demand, diminishing our capacity for reflection, there is less time to stop and think about our lives.

So what happens when we remove these technologies altogether? In order to break free from the ‘digital prison’, Hassan booked passage on a container ship and spent five weeks travelling from Melbourne to Singapore – disconnected and essentially alone. In this space of isolation and reflection, he was able to reconnect with lost memories and interrogate the temporality of both ‘clock time’ and lived experience.

Uncontained is an account of Hassan’s voyage of discovery – a must-read for anyone who resents the encroachment of the digital on their inner world.