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Overview
The first half of the semester there are weekly production assignments that will function as studies for a final project. The midterm consists of refining one of your studies, presenting an overview of your work so far, and proposing a final.
The second half of the semester you will continue developing your final project, which has the opportunity to be displayed at a special show at the Horological Society of New York.
Throughout the semester, students will take turns facilitating weekly discussions.
Theme
This year, I propose a theme for our class, and I invite you to consider how it can be woven into all your work throughout the semester. This year’s theme is Complications.
In horology, a watch or clock’s complication is anything beyond the basic hours and minutes representation of time. Adding the date or the day of the week is a complication. Showing the phases of the moon is a particularly beautiful complication. Horology is full of ingenious complications that I expect will surprise and delight you this semester.
But I also invite you to consider the idea of a complication in a less-literal sense. What is it about time, beyond the strict reflecting of its passing, that interests you? How can you capture an intangible temporal essence? What complication would allow you to do so?
Deliverables
- Sundial, due week 2, Sept 11
- Time pattern study, due week 3, Sept 18
- Hardware timekeeper, due week 4, Sept 25
- Software timekeeper, due week 5, Friday Oct 3
- Design study, due week 6, Oct 9
- Midterm, presented week 7, Oct 16
- Final, presented weeks 13 and 14, Dec 4 and Dec 11
- One week as discussion facilitator, dates to be assigned.
Assignment Details
Sundial
Build a sundial! Document it. It is very, very valuable to build a literal sundial, even one as simple as a stick in the ground, but… the sundial can be a metaphor if you like. There are tons of types of sundials, and humans have been making them for a long time – look around for inspiration. There are software tools ranging from simple to elaborate that can help you design one. See the resources section.
Temporal Pattern
There are obvious chronological patterns that affect us – the day, the week, the calendar and academic years. And there are less obvious chronological and kairological patterns – the lunar cycle, creative highs and lows, youth and middle age. Find a pattern you think is important and try to represent it. I’d love to see stop motion, time lapse, or slow motion techniques here, but a software study is OK, too.
Hardware Timekeeper
Create a tangible object that shows the time. Ascribe a personality to your object – is it shy? Devious? Assertive? Mendacious? Draw on Pcomp 101; hack a clock; or use this as an opportunity to explore a component you might use for your final.
Software Timekeeper
Use your software of choice to create a timekeeper in code. Represent at least two distinct rates of change. Use ICM 101, or explore a library or language you might use in your final.
Design Study
From the resources at HSNY, or other places, find a watch or clock that speaks to you. Study it’s design carefully – its proportions, palette, materials – and recreate it in the tool of your choice – a hand drawing, Illustrator, P5, Unity, whatever. Now, design a custom complication for this watch and add that.
Midterm
While we will discuss your work throughout the first weeks, the Midterm presentation is your chance to summarize and share your work so far. First, refine one of your previous assignments and share the details of that. Second, summarize (on, say 2-4 slides) your other work, and find a through-line that connects it. Finally, create a 1-2 slide proposal for a final project that can be displayed at ITP and/or HSNY.
Final Project
Build on the semester’s theme, Complications, to create a timekeeper that reflects your unique experience of time. Is it chronos or kairos? Timeless or of-the-moment? Light-hearted or profound? Develop the project through weeks 8-12, and present the final result on either week 13 or 14 in class.
Discussion Facilitators
On various weeks starting in week 3, two students will function as discussion facilitators for the class. You will take the lead in prompting your peers to engage with the reading or the theme of the week. You might also use your week to share art or an artist that you think is relevant, a writer beyond our reading that is inspiring, or an event or experience you’ve attended that fits the class.