Time
The Elevator Pitch
Time touches everything we see, experience and create. The emphasis in this course is on the impact of temporality on the way we perceive and engage the world and on the things we make. Projects emphasize conceptual development and process, and students learn to work with a range of media that includes Adobe InDesign and Premiere Pro.
Official Course Description
From the Course Catalogue
In this class we will explore the “idea” of time. How do we track time? How is it experienced in the real world? How is it experienced in a piece of art? Throughout the semester, you will engage with the idea that time is a malleable concept. When you begin to consider the cultural and perceptual constructions of time, it becomes a material whose properties you can learn to manipulate and use in your work.You will be introduced to time-based media, including InDesign (time across the page) and Premiere Pro (time in motion). Through these programs and others, you will learn to create layouts for print, as well as edit and shoot video. You will experiment with span, duration, linear and non-linear narratives. Studio projects, readings, writing and examples of many artists’ work are used to examine how our ideas about time have evolved. The course encourages a spirit of play and experimentation. How does time impact our sense of memory and identity in ways that can influence our art, design, and strategic thinking processes?
How One Instructor Describes This Course
“This class begins with a game that sets the tone for the semester, encouraging dialogue through the use of images and text, experimentation, iterations, and play. During the semester we explore concepts of time in relationship to a variety of processes and media – working with variables such as movement, progression, and space to create experimental stories in a variety of forms and media including mapping, montage, collage, book arts, audio works and video. There is an emphasis on the process of making and the challenge of expressing ideas as we use audio, video, and other time-based projects to explore sequence, juxtaposition, narrative strategies, performance and documentation.
–Shari Diamond
Week by Week Layout and Project Examples
Time Map
Weeks 1 – 2
Iterations on Mapping the Beginning: Maps have the potential to reveal our relationships with place and/or time. In this iterative exercise, students are asked to reflect on their first week of school and explore visualizing their thoughts, feelings, and reflections, observing both the structure and their perception of time. Students reflect on their experiences, locate patterns and connections that interest them, and translate them into a 2-dimensional visualization.
Frames of Reference
Weeks 3 – 5
Montage and collage have the potential to combine imagery from multiple image sources into a single frame composition. For this project, students examine the possibilities for visual storytelling, image juxtaposition and symbolism to tell a story in two parts, imagining past and future. Students begin by selecting a person or place to research and work with collage and montage to create 2 compositions informed by their research and incorporating their imagination.
Cover 
Student explaining the project. 
While this project had many steps, I greatly enjoyed having the chance to create my own piece of media and was so inspired that I changed my major to illustration. This process and the experience gained from it will be extremely helpful in the future of my learning and career.
Better Late Than Never, by Abbey Bear
Linear Progressions
Weeks 6 – 8
It’s About Time: In this project students explore the “essence of time” in the form of a book while considering the structure as a sequence of spaces perceived at different moments.
Inspired by Alan Lightman’s book, Einstein’s Dreams, students explore the construction of meaning through transitions, juxtaposition, and text by selecting one of the following concepts: time is like a circle; time is like a flow of water; time is a dimension; everything is in motion; there is no time.
Various book structures are workshopped, the basics of typography is discussed and considered as well as page layout and design working with Adobe InDesign.
Closer, by Xinran Cheng
Linear Progressions
Weeks 9 – 10
Photo Roman: This project takes the form of a moving image by integrating still imagery with sound as a storytelling tool. Through a sequence of still images, students construct a literal or abstract visual narrative of their choice exploring a topic and/or telling a story while taking the viewer through a journey of images. The goal is to piece together a string of associations from one image to the next, transforming 2D methods of storytelling into a moving image.
Sloth Disguised As The Feeling Of Blue
*click image to play video
Open Works
Weeks 11 – 15
1 Minute Video: Students incorporate the previous project’s introduction of sound and video time-based narrative strategies. They explore a topic, determined by the class, and create a 1-minute video work, continuing their narrative examination and the ability to manipulate the perception of time using video, sound, and editing. There are multiple phases to the final project including brainstorming, research, a project pitch, storyboarding, capturing audio and video, editing, work in progress reviews and a final project presentation.
What Students Take With Them When They Leave
“Students leave the class with a critical eye, an understanding of the importance of concept development and process and a new found confidence working with and across a variety of media.
Students develop an awareness of the complexity of time providing insights into themselves, their lives and their creative work.”
-Shari Diamond