Using Art to Express the Nature of Time

 We have continued to examine how various artists use time as a material in their works. Through the artistic process, artists display their perception of time and help us expand our understanding of the subject. Time is something that we are involved with everyday, but is still very difficult to define.

In class we watched the movie Momento, directed by Christopher Nolan. The film is a story about a man named Leonard who suffers from short-term memory loss and uses photos and tattoos to try and hunt down the man who he thinks raped and killed his wife. The movie shows how important our sense of time is and displays the relationship between time and memory. Leonard can remember everything up until the accident with his wife, and then can only recall the last couple of minutes. Leonard can’t do anything to prevent this memory loss and has to use pictures with notes and tattoos to save the information that he needs to know. The movie shows how if we had no memory, we would have no sense of time. When Leonard’s mind goes blank, he does not know where he is, what he is doing, or how much time has passed. This loss of memory-and sense of time-is a truly frightening idea.

I think it is really interesting to think about how photographs reflect time. In a podcast on RadioLab, Unlocking the Secrets of Time, they discuss how Leland Stanford owned a horse and had a photographer take photos of the horse running to see if all four of its legs ever left the ground at the same time. I think these photos are really interesting because the men needed to use a camera to slow down time and take a precise image. Even though the horse runs right in front of their eyes, it is only with the use of the camera that they can really see exactly what is happening.

In Ways of Seeing, by John Berger, he also discusses photographs but in a different way. He talks about how photos reflect the photographer’s way of seeing or his/her perspective the photographer’s subject. Berger also discusses how photos are used to reproduce images of paintings. He says when paintings are reproduced it destroys the uniqueness of the image and the meaning of the original painting changes. I am curious about whether Berger believes that both paintings and photographs have the same ability to reflect the artist’s way of seeing and give a view of the past? Also, even if there were no reproduction of paintings through photographs, would it be possible for the meaning of a painting to stay the same?

We have also been doing more art exercises lately and have practiced moving our thinking from the left hemisphere of our brain to the right. When we shift from our left to right brain we transition from logical thinking to our spacial thinking. This crossing over allows us to more accurately draw what is in front of us because we focus on drawing what we actually see and not how our left brain tells us a nose, hand, or object should look. When artists use their right brain, they feel absorbed in the work and can loose their sense of time completely. This feeling is very similar to what I experience playing soccer. When I am “in the zone” everything around me seems to disappear. I am so focused on the game that I am not thinking about anything else. I am not aware of how much time is left in the game or what the fans are saying. It is almost like I move without even really thinking. It is during these moments that I play my best soccer.

We also did a project in which we were to show on a note card a place that is lost. I printed out images on the computer and recreated a memory from when I was little. In my old house, we had a window seat that I remember sitting in watching the rain fall. This place is lost because we no longer live there and it is unlikely that I will ever return to it. But I can always imagine myself sitting there, experiencing the passing of time with every raindrop that glided down the window.  

Time and its relationship to memory

Memory is what allows us to have a sense of time. If we did not have any memory of the past then we would be living continuously in the present with no understanding of what is a day an hour or a minute. Think about your first memory, the first thing you can remember. I am standing at the top of the stairs on Christmas morning, deciding when to come down to see what Santa brought. Usually people don’t remember anything before the age of three or four, and even when we do remember events from those early years it is hard to place them in chronological order. It is also amazing that we cannot remember anything from when we were newborns. This is partially due to the development of the hypothalamus and its ability to store memory. In JG Whitrow’s “What is Time?,” he points out that we develop a sense of time by learning, meaning having an understanding of linear time is not a purely automatic process. This idea reminds me of the times when I have babysat my neighbors. When their parents left, Alec and Andy, ages 3 and 5, would not have an understanding of how much time would pass before their Mom and Dad would come back home. Saying “just two more hours” would only result in them asking five minutes later if two hours had passed. It takes years to be able to develop a sense of time and what two hours passing feels like.

The speed in which time passes never changes, however, at times we feel like it does. An hour in a gly boring class seems like an eternity, while time spent doing something fun goes by in a flash. Even though that one hour in class seems like forever, the hours all blend together, and weeks later I can’t distinguish that one slow moving hour from all the others. The speed in which time passes also changes as you get older. In “What is Time?,” Whitrow includes a poem by Guy Pentreath, which represents the feeling that time goes faster as you get older.

For when I was a babe and wept and slept,

Time crept;

When I was a boy and laughed and talked,

Time walked;

Then when the years saw me a man,

Time ran,

But as I older grew, Time flew.

Another interesting topic the reading discussed was déjà vu. Moments of déjà vu are surreal and confusing. They always seem to come at random times and I am left at a loss as to what moment in time I am remembering. In Beyonce’s song, she describes having constant moments of déjà vu that cause her to feel like she is seeing something that she isn’t. She describes the feeling like being in a dream and seeing things she knows can’t be really happening. I wonder what causes déjà vu and why some people experience it while others don’t.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ9BWndKEgs

What is Time?

In the first excerpt of GJ Whitrow's "What is Time," he focused on the origin of the idea of time as we understand it today. His summary begins with the description of how various cultures, such as the Maya and Egyptians, and religions, like Christianity and Hebrew, influenced the development of the idea of time. One of the most interesting ideas presented was whether time is cyclic or linear. The Maya predicted that history would repeat itself in cycles of 260 years. However, Christians believe that time was linear because the crucifixion of Christ was an event that can never be repeated. I think it is interesting how each culture has its own understanding of time. This difference became apparent to me when I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold. His novel that features a circular story, is contrasted by most American literature that I have read that tells a story from A to Z.

Another interesting idea that Whitrow proposed was that “all animals except man live in a continual present.” He believes that it is through our “conscious reflection on the human situation” that allows us to distinguish the past from the present from the future. I began to think about how although I am always living the present, but I constantly think about the past and the present. All the pictures on my dorm room wall remind me of things that I’ve already done and people I’ve already met. I also think about the future constantly. Having a plan for the future allows me to not feel aimless. Having an understanding of the future allows me to set goals for myself.

One thing I have begun to think about is whether or not our society is too focused on time. Whitrow notes that “we tend to eat and sleep, not when we feel hungry or tired, but when prompted by the clock.” The mechanical clock guides our lives. If we did not have clocks, society would not be able to function as it does today.

Will time ever stop? And what does that mean exactly? Would everything just freeze? This idea of time ceasing seems far fetched for me, but I guess some believe it is possible. Does the end of time correspond to the end of the universe?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/101027-science-space-universe-end-of-time-multiverse-inflation/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=could-time-end

Visual Analysis

In class last Wednesday we began to discuss visual analysis-or interpreting art through looking at its colors, lines, texture, etc. We practiced this new skill by examining paintings such as the Allegory of the Art of Painting by Vermeer (1675). We also spent some time admiring the pieces in the SMCM gallery. By using visual analysis we are able to break down a work of art and look at it simply. This method allows us to plainly state what we are seeing before we try to evaluate the deeper significances in the pieces.

We have also spent some time watching videos that are focused on the theme time. Because the footage was very complex, we first tried to break down what exactly happened in each video. Drawing out a storyboard of the video helped tremendously. We then were able to talk about how the directors used time in their pieces.

In sum, break down what exactly you are seeing first (colors, lines, texture, storyline) and then analyze more in depth (themes, context of when/why piece was made).