Time Archive Reflection: The project was composed of many different parts of a much larger assignment in order to broaden and explore our understanding of “time” and how to capture it. We began by going out into New York City with our cameras with the instructions to take at least 36 pictures that represented time. We then took those photos, and arranged them into a 30” x 30” image grid, while also playing close attention to the placement of each element in order to create relationships between the images. After learning about the Gestalt Principles of of Perceptual Organization, we applied those theories to the preliminary composition of a book featuring these images in our sketchbooks. After working on paper and determining different relationships and themes, I took that sketch phase and developed it into a book design layout in InDesign. Within InDesign, I complicated the sequence further by incorporating additional photography and further exploring the Gestalt’s Principles as well as the ideas brought up in McCloud’s “Time Frames” to create my final book. This was then printed and assembled by hand, acting as the last final product of the project alongside the photographs we took, and the Time Archive Grid.
I think that many different components within this assignment got us to explore different skill sets that relate to what we’ve learned in the course thus far. For example, through taking photographs we were pushed to stretch out understanding of what time means and view the world around us from a new perspective. Through the grid, we explored the effects placement, sequencing, and cropping has on the relationships between images. The book was the portion of the project that tied all of this together, and really allowed us to manipulate the composition of our images to create a physical product to be looked at from beginning to end. I think it relates closely to what we have learnt so far both about time, and the different ways we experience it. Our understanding of composition, from both class readings and discussion, was applied to time and the images we captured to reveal the important relationships that exist between the two.
Now that this ongoing assignment is behind us, I can see us further exploring the many interpretations and forms of time that exist. I think we will also continue to learn more about composition, its importance, and the role it plays in the composition of imagery or the assembling of different forms of art.
Time Archive: Grid
Time Archive: Book
