Project 1 I Final (Reflection)

Time perception began with a personal take based on what I’ve experienced as well as the realisation of similar encounters by my friends. This sparked me to create something to reflect upon this kind of experience that is usually taken less seriously as it was just a matter of individual perception. Through my research, I began to understand the “science” behind it and this somehow changes my perception towards time since I know how the brain works. Thus, the idea of illusion and typography came about as a form of medium towards the expression of this topic.

Time perception is defined as a field of study that is link to psychology and neuroscience in which it is subjective to the experience of time and measured by own perception. I couldn’t less agree to this yet I felt that this is a scientific approach toward the definition of such experience. From a less scientific view, I would define it as a rather common yet quite odd encounter with time as it differs from each individual.

Time Device

Initial materials & Model structure

The idea is to use water pump to generate water to push the cup that is going to be attached onto each side of the windmill.

Process of Making

During the process of making the prototype, we realised that the windmill does not work well and decided to use wooden and plastic sticks to build the main structure instead. We managed to build it and had a test run on it. However, it did not go as well as expected due to the current/power of the water pump and the lightweights of the cups. Thus, we attached small wooden sticks at the bottom of the cups and even reduce the number of cups from 6 to 4 in hopes that it would spin well. Still, it did not work and we decided to try out various angles to position the cups. Due to much trial and error that we’ve done, the tape that we used to secure it was no longer strong enough to hold the entire weight of the structure which includes the water that is poured in the cups. By then, I felt frustrated and disappointed as it did not turn out the way that I’ve imagined it to be. The process was long and tedious and I was not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel.

Last Resort

We decided to just change the material of the entire structure to acrylic instead as it is much sturdier and chances of success is higher than the current one. We managed to laser cut the acrylic and it spins! Like finally.. However, there was a lack in consistency due to the little gaps between the slits that made the water leak. We sealed it with glue and it somehow solved the problem. Yayy!

Final Product

In conclusion, I felt a sense of accomplishment as we managed to make it work by making use of the existing materials that we have. Like what we’ve discussed in class, if we have the chance to improve it, we would change to a better material and maybe even change to a stronger water pump that would allow the wheel to spin faster.

Field Trip Reflection (Time of Others)

Through the visit of Time of Others at Singapore Art Museum, I found some interesting works that caught my attention for its interpretations. One of it is Calendars (2020 – 2096) by Heman Chong where walls of the room are filled with picture calendars. It was rather overwhelming at the initially stage; however as I began to look at it in details, I started to recognized some of the pictures as I’ve been there before (ADM and other public spaces). The placement of images of spaces in relation with the year of the calendar was rather thought provoking. Somehow, I felt like I was in a time machine as I’m looking at pictures of the past yet being at the present and going to the future where the calendar dates. Personally, the idea of time in this context was rather conceptual.

Another work that was rather captivating was Ringo Bunoan’s Endings and No Endings (2013) that utilize pages from the books to interpret time. Endings is where by the last page of many different books are framed individually and randomly arranged together. It seemed to demonstrate the many different possibilities of outcomes and endings that depict the end of time. While No Endings is where books without the last page are piled up against the wall with the titles hidden. Somehow, it enables people to interpret their own beginnings and like the title of the artwork No Endings, the story would go on forever, as there is no THE END page. The idea of playing with time within pages of the books was quite intriguing yet simple at the same time.

Both works – Calendars (2020 – 2096) by Heman Chong and Ringo Bunoan’s Endings and No Endings (2013) interprets time differently based on their own concept as well as perspective. It is interesting to see how each individual artist use different kind of mediums to express and convey the concept of time.