The focus of my design approach is a strong consideration of the human aspect of time, of embracing how we truly see and use it as individuals, as people... and cultivating this in a commonly, ‘inexclusively’ meaningful and utilitarian object. I would like to avoid anything that requires a particular type of understanding, that is evocative only to the few capable of evocation. I would like to avoid anything dependent on commodity. And I would like to avoid anything detached from human life.
How is time truly meaningful to us?
My presentation of these thoughts is structured into two segments, beginning with ponderings about marking time, accumulating into an idea for a project, followed by ponderings about keeping time, accumulating into numerous other, less distinct ideas for a project. It is important to note that, while it is efficient to segment these ideas for the sake of presentation, as well as remembrance, they are, in essence, of the same origins, and should not be considered in absence of one another.
Marking Time
Time is meaningless without context. It is meaningless without event or circumstance to associate with. What does 12:00PM mean to you? It likely means lunch. It might also mean a break, relief, a chance. It might mean the end of the world for someone. But it doesn’t mean 12:00PM. Thus, time gives, and is given meaning, from context. An empty calendar is irrelevant.
I will further argue that time, in and of itself, has no influence on the human condition, on us. It is other things - the body, the environment, other people, which affect us. They simply do so within the medium of time. Thus, time may be considered as an enabling, yet restrictive palette upon which our lives may occur. It is, once again, irrelevant without context.
So, time is essentially affiliated with circumstance and event... or, delving a little further, with the emotional stimulus associated with circumstance and event. You can’t help but smile when you think about that time you first met the love of your life. You can’t help but cringe when you think about that time you lost your job.
Thus, the crowning idea of my object is one which marks time through the association with an emotional stimulus. Rather than just conveying a meaningless numerical assignment of time, or just evoking an emotional response - via a picture, music, etc. - independent of time, I wish to combine the two; there is so much richness to be tapped from this dialogue.*
Thinking further...
Numerous emotional markings of time must be able to exist concurrently, to allow for relational value.
Chronology, that is - order, must exist, for there is necessity and meaning in arrangement. Time is all about this.
Relativity must exist; the degree to which these markings relate in space must be variable, for there is meaning in proximity.
Scale must exist - whether it be duration or intensity.
Simultaneity must exist; the same point in time must be able to accommodate many associations.
Potential must exist - for additional time and for additional markers.
The manifestation of these ideas are as follows:
Time is represented as space, as a growing palette, which chronological relevance, which you may mark with representations of your emotional state (caused either by event or circumstance) at particular instances in time. This independent of numerical structure.
Imagine a wall or table mounted representation of time - perhaps a line of yarn, variably segmented with adhesive magnets. Passed and existing time is represented linearly, in a manner (straight, wavy, jagged, high, low etc. - or a combination of many) expressive of the user. Future time is represented as unmounted, hanging yarn... dangling to the floor, perhaps collecting in a pile. At any time, it may be added to the existing palette to accommodate one’s progression through time, or to express a different “chapter” in time.
On this, you place a series of varied smileys along the line of magnets to represent that mark in time with an emotion. Perhaps a small clip at the end of a modest chain hanging from each smiley allows for the attachment of pictures, notes, and objects if one wishes for greater remembrance and or evocation. These smileys, of varied representations and scales, are placed in order of their occurrence (likely left to right), distanced from one another according to their perceived distance in time. Exactness is unnecessary; it is only the user’s conception of time that is relevant.
The unused smileys sit in a pile on the floor, on a table, in a drawer, or in a container - representing future emotional states waiting to be used. Ideally, you should be able to see them, to be eager or reluctant to place them.
After the process of recording past and present is completed begins the beautiful process of recording time as it occurs, of adding time and emotion simultaneously. There is no need to exclusively mark significant events; scales exist within the project to represent scales in reality. You can simply be in a foul mood one day and stick a little angry face at the end of the string. A year later, lengths of string down, you may not remember why the little guy is there, just that it was - and that’s okay.
Just imagine sitting down one day and looking at this object, observing the rich and varied emotional occurrences of your life - of your stint in time. Imagine looking at that little smiling face and thinking about that particular moment. Imagine looking at the dangling string, the pile of unused faces, and realizing the undetermined future.
On Materiality
I would like to keep this simple. I might consider yarn to represent time - due to its role as a constitutive material, its linearity, and its malleability. As a means to adhere this to the a wall or mount, as well as a means to adhere other objects to it, I am considering the use of magnets , due to their simplicity, their ease of use, and their reapplicability. Further, they represent a certain force attracting time and human condition towards each other. The smileys might be made of wood - directly from an organism with a parallel stake in time (I could use the grain in a contributory way), or metal - a representation of resistance.
On Precedence
I turn directly to the traditional means of expressing time and marking occurrences within it as precedents. I turn to the clock, the calendar, the picture album, the journal, memorabilia. These things are often more pure, more pragmatic than their provocative derivatives. As describe in my second post, most of these derivatives innovate to the extent of novel presentation or added meaning (or heaven forbid, reduced utility), but not reevaluation. Popping bubbles, going around in circles, shredding paper, filling water, throwing darts, and eroding sand are all of the same prevailing mindset. I do not imply anything wrong with this, just that it is in a direction different than that which I mean to pursue.
Most importantly, I turn to people as precedents. I turn to myself, to the inquiry into the way I (and presumably, most others) naturally consider time and event.
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