Time Machine

Within this exercise, you are to make a motion picture representation that depicts "time". You may want to think of time as a variable that can be set to a constant rate, to accelerate , deaccelarate, or to take a sequence of different values. For example, a baseline value for time might be the constant rate of change we assocaite with a standard wrist watch as in so-called real-time motion pictures or animation. You can adjust the rate as in time-lapse or slow motion. You can juxtapose different moments in time, such as using a flashback technique, or treat time in exponential rates of change, such as in the Eames film " Powers of Ten" (1975), or more recently the IMAX movie Cosmic Voyage (1997). We can even find time evident in the first pioneering films such as we have seen in the stop action majician like movies of George Méliès 1861-1938. Your approach could be to revisit any everyday phenomena viewed differently over varied rates of time.

This exercise should be interpreted very liberally in order to allow you to develop your own focus.

Assignments one through during the semester were based on realistic representations or more abstract objects. You explored architectural and/or outdoor spaces, in some cases with people or animal subjects, directly with a video camera operating in real-time sequences in assignments 1 and 2. Then, your study had the appearance a linear time news ticker sequence in assignment 3. Now, within this assignment, we are prospectively moving beyond what a camera would typically record in a linear sequence or the idea of time as expressed in quotations coming accross a news ticker. We may attempt to represent abstractly an assembly over time of spatial or formal elements or simply to effect other changes over time such as in a clock that keep.

NOTE: Pace yourself and review the tutorials in 8 through 10 in Reas, Casey and Fry, Ben, "Getting Started with Processing" during the next three weeks leading to March 25th. That is, given earlier reading assignments, you should have reviewed the tutorials within all the chapters in the book up through chapter 10. Note any questions about examples that may be difficult for discussion in the class or stop by for help during office hours for additional support.

MEDIA OPTIONS

1. Processing with or without additional video.

You may complete this exercise in Processing with or without video recorded with a digital camera.

2. Digital Editing Option

To combine media Import the animation output and/or video footage into iMovieHD to further refine the assembly. Consult with Earl Mark about the scope of your study and technique. Work on this assignment should be carefully scheduled over the next several weeks.  

Submission

1. Submit your Processing sketch directly to classes. Optionally, render and save a digital video in Quicktime Movie (mov) format to your submit directory. For combined media, a movie of 30 seconds to two minutes (at most) is a good size for this exercise.

2. Send notification via email to to Earl Mark, ejmark@virginia.edu, about the completion of this assignment, its file name and directory location in the classes folder, and a brief description about your intentions.

* This exercise is in part inspired after Kevin Lynch's book of the same title. See reference below.
References
Lynch, Kevin, Chapter 5 Excerpt, "What Time is This Place", MIT Press, 1972.

Rainer Maria Rilke, "The Notes of Malte Laurids Brigge", 1910, from Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sarte, Edited by Walter Kaufmann, The World Publishing Company, 1956.