Project #3 Experimental Clock

p5js code click here!

Design description

This clock is a scene that reflects when time past by, the sunlight will change its position and give me a sense of time shifting. When the sun falls, the clock will become as a more digital one. It tells me how close the nature is connecting with myself and gives me a sense of an ancient way of tracking time like the sundial.

Process

My first idea is think time as a factor that has causality. So I start with the Bill Viola's video work Reflecting Pool. The idea here is more philosophical than others. The wave of water reflect the consequence of the man jumping into the pool.However, the time is vague and hard for my audience to tell as I try to visualize it. So I went to another direction with Rebecca cummins' work of sundials. She was my professor when I was in the UW. She made the huge statue of Washington as a sundial. I think this idea is very interesting to me because it is a natural interaction to us since we were born. And it is very obvious to me to see the time as the sun will change its position while time past. So I choose the shadow and sunlight contradiction to visualize the time. Although it is still not so precisely, it reflects how do people get the time for thousands of years.

Reflection

I think this assignment gives me an opportunity to rethink time as a factor in my daily life. I'd like to create a connection between human and time by building up a bridge, which is the p5.js. And I use nature feature to link the sense of time. I think create a clock by using this tool helps me better trasfer a conceptual idea into a more visualized and interactive way to show my idea to my audience.