Representing Time (20% of your final grade)
Due: October 12th
Attempts to mark time stretch back many thousands of years, with some of the earliest timekeeping technologies being gnomons, sundials, water clocks, and lunar calendars. Even today’s standard representation of time, with hours and minutes divided into 60 parts, is a legacy inherited from the ancient Sumerians, who used a sexagesimal counting system.
The history of timekeeping is the history of a still unfolding relationship between technological developments and a drive for greater precision, accuracy, and synchronization.
Before you begin read the following:
- This 5-page chapter on “Timekeeping” (PDF) by Johanna Drucker, from her book Graphesis: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production (Harvard Press, 2014).
- This excellent 6-minute YouTube video on the history of timekeeping devices.
- Peruse the Wikipedia History of Timekeeping Devices for ideas!
Brief
Design a ‘visual clock’ that displays a novel or unconventional representation of the time. It is not essential that the time of day be literally readable from it, but your clock should appear different at all times of the day, and it should repeat its appearance every 24 hours (or other relevant cycle, if desired). You are encouraged to seriously question basic assumptions about how time is mediated and represented. Ponder things like biological time (chronobiology), ultradian and infradian rhythms, solar and lunar cycles, celestial time, decimal time, metric time, geological time, historical time, psychological time, and subjective time. Inform your design by reading about the history of timekeeping systems and devices, and their transformative effects on society.
Deliverables
- Ponder the readings and the examples in the class lecture. Really think about the different ways of time telling here.
- Develop a concept in a series of sketches. (due October 5th)
- Write 100 words describing your clock concept. Why is it interesting and exploratory? (due October 5th)
- Write out the steps required to code your clock. Pseudo code.
- Code your clock, you may need to do this in parts. (due October 12th)
Learning objectives:
- Become acquainted with the history of systems and devices for timekeeping
- Devise technologies and graphic concepts for representing time that go beyond conventional methods of visualization and mediation
- Refine craft skills in the use of programming to control shape, color, form, and motion