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.

Project 1 I Mock Up

Mock up of the 5 posters. I realised that one of the effect works slightly different from the rest and thus, I would like to change the effect to dots instead of applying the same effect to another poster.

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The visibility between being placed under spotlight and not under it is rather different. (It’s easier to see without direct spotlight.)

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Adjusted the stroke to make it less visible

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Project 1 I Illusion Research and Experimentation

Sourced for some inspiration from Shigeo Fukuda’s illusion works where he uses typography as a space/form to create illusions. One thing I’ve realised is that he often uses hands and legs to create such illusions and one of the reasons I think is because both have two rather straight lines which makes it easier to connect.. He also played with plane lines to create different perspective/illusions. Such effect instantly make me think of Monument Valley, which is an optical puzzle game that has this effect but in a 3D version. (It’s super addictive plus it has very nice and simple graphics!)

 

Meanwhile, printed one of the design to test out how well the illusion would work on paper and I realised that lighting plays a part in the contribution towards how well it can be seen. When it is placed directly under the light, the text can’t be seen as clearly (up closed) as compared to it being placed somewhere slightly far from the direct light. Another thing is, the text can be seen rather easily thus I’ve adjusted it to make it harder to see.

Took some pictures of the first experiment (A2 size, without the adjustment yet).

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Project 1 I Memories and Experiences to Time Perception

Through this talk by Andre Fenton – The Future of Hope (a famous neuroscientist that studies the brain in relation to stored experiences as memories), he covered details of memories (construction/reconstruction of experiences) and mentioned that “your experience determines how you see and understand what is presented to you”. As I reflected upon this, I found it on par to the research that I’ve done and mentioned in the previous post – when the brain do not need to process so much new informations (also means that the brain had experienced same/similar experience before), time would be perceived to be faster as the process is faster.

In another article which talks about Fenton’s incorporation of art to his lab through a table designed by Shuli Sade, where the images applied on the table are distorted and fragmented. This execution reflects well upon how memory works in the brain as he mentioned “memories in the brain are distorted and fragmented. They appear together in this space kind of like how they appear together in your brain”

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In link to memories and experiences to perception of time, The Experience and Perception of Time wrote about memories of events from past experiences that are “accompanied by a feeling of pastness” where emotions could be inclusive towards remembrance of the past.

Project 1 I Interesting Findings

There’s this “game” that plays with time perception called Unlock the Mysteries of Time Perception. Rather interesting to experiment/test myself as I got to know how I perceive time.

 

A project called Time Wizard that revolves around the idea of tricking and distorting one’s perception of time through activities that can be found in the toolkit.

 

Another is about optical illusions and I personally found the grid amazing! So was Einstein too.(Thatcher was rather scary..)

Project 1 I Time Perception Research and Moodboard

Some additional interesting research found besides the links that was embedded in my previous post (Time Mindmap and Idea).

 

One of it is a project called DURR by Skrekkogle Studio that alters the function of watch to change how people perceive time.

DURR

 

Another is a talk about Perception of Time Delation by David Eagleman, a neuroscientist and an author who is famous for his specialisation of time perception and more.

 

Alternative approach towards time perception is the creation of illusion poster by Agnes Herr that challenges people to look at it differently.

 

Moodboard can be found at Pinterest.

Project 1 I Time Mindmap and Proposed Idea

Mindmap

Time Mindmap

 

Idea

 

There are many instances when I feel that time flies very quickly and vice versa (I’m sure there are other people who feels the same way too, just during different moments based on personal experiences). Thus, I decided to explore on Time Perception as I felt it is an interesting topic that most individuals could relate to in general.

Through my research, I found out that human brain is the core towards how we perceive time. When mental impression is created, it brings about temporal illusions and distortions in the perception of time due to various reasons/experiences. There are different forms of temporal illusions such as the kappa effect (the brain expects constant motion), chronostasis (similar to oddball effect where the brain experiences unusual events that requires it to pay more attention and time to process it),emotional states (happy vs bored) and more.

One of the reason as to why individuals might perceived time to be slow is because when the brain receives a lot of new informations, it takes awhile to fully process it. The longer the process is, the longer the perceived time would be. For instance when one experiences a life threatening event, he would record the experience that he receives and processes it. This mental action requires a lot of attention and time thus, he would perceive time to be longer than it really is. Contrariwise, when the brain do not need to process so much new informations, time would be perceived to be faster as the process is faster.

 

Therefore, my idea is the play of perception through typography to depict time as something subjective towards individual experience base on the action of looking at illusionary typography posters. Some who have come in contact or are familiar with illusion stuff would be able to process it faster than those who did not. The ultimate idea is to show how individuals perceive time differently based on the different informations that they have processed in their brains.

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 1

 

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.

Process 2

Process 3

Process 4

 

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!

Process 5

 

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.

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