Project #3 Experimental Clock

Description

Traffic light is definitely one of those things that makes me more conscious about time. It can always catch my attention whenever I’m stopped by a traffic light. There's something about it that makes me associate it with time. It almost feels like time is moving slower when I am watching it. Therefore the idea of using traffic light to track time is really interesting to me. I think adding the zebra crossing makes it more poetic. The traffic light can be seen as a reminder, a stop to remind us to pause once in a while in our way of life

Design Process

I initially had four ideas. The first one is traffic light, which is the one that I finally settled on. It involves a traffic light at an intersection with a zebra crossing by the side. The second one is an endless stairs moving up or down as the time goes by. The third one is inspired by my dog. I was trying to use my dog and his gestures as a way of measuring time. The last one is the process of sunset or sunrise as a way of visualizing time. I ended up with the first one because I like how this one looks the most, and for some reason traffic light was the first thing that came to my mind when I see this assignment. I decided to use the three signal lights to represent seconds, minutes and hour, and the color of the lights change randomly according to the time. The zebra crossing is also moving slowly per second to give the illusion that the road is slowly moving away from me.

Reflection

This assignment allows me to think of time in a conceptual way. It makes me think about all the different ways we can use to track time. If we think about it, anything can be used to measure time, the conventional clock we are using now is just a universal measurement used across the globe, and everyone can have their own routines and preferences in terms of spending time. Every individuals have their own unique ways of visualizing time.