2D UNIT IX:
TIME FRAMES
OBJECTIVES
In this unit you will learn about:
* historical and cultural ideas about time, change, and motion.
* artists and designers who communicate concepts of time, change, and motion through various forms of visual expression.
* hands on techniques for developing your own projects around the concepts of time, change, and motion.
OVERVIEW
Time is the greatest innovator.
--Francis Bacon, "Of Innovations" (1625)
Artists and designers have long grappled with effective ways to frame, communicate, and symbolize time in visual terms. Some artists use metaphors to convey the passage of time. Others use sophisticated technologies to capture hard to perceive changes (e.g., chronophotography, time-lapse photography). Still others use time-related processes that rely on actual physical changes or transformations (e.g., the sand in an hour glass, or "real-time" datastreams on the Internet).
Understanding our relationship to time is key to appreciating historical forces, the "pace" of different cultures, and contemporary life. Our ability to negotiate the future depends in large measure on how effective we are in dealing with time as a concept.
Inquiry Questions: How does time impact your life? Is your day ruled by the clock? Why is "managing time" so challenging for many people?
The following Unit provides an overview of approaches to time, change, and motion in art and visual culture. At the end of the Unit, you will find weblinks, a bibliography, and a series of "Interactive Modules" that provide real-time feedback on technical, historical, and design issues useful in investigating Time in Art.
* Visual Narratives
* Time Symbolized
* Graphic Conventions
* Photo Techniques
* Sequential and Overlapping Images
* Time-based Media
* Tests of Time
* Weblinks
* Books on Time
* Interactive Modules
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Visual Narratives
Sassetta and assistant.
The Meeting of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul, c. 1440.
Tempera on wood. 18 1/4" x 13 5/8".
National Gallery of Art
There are many ways to tell a story visually with traditional media--including of course the familiar multi-panel "cartoon." But many other formats are available including scrolls, calendars, road signs (e.g, Burma Shave), "before and after" photos, diaries and other variations on the book.
Sassetta (Stefano di Giovanni), provides a compelling visual narrative in his painting, The Meeting of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul (c. 1440). Three moments or "frames" from the story of the two saints meeting are positioned along a winding road in a single landscape.
Cartoonists such as Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, and others have long favored the familiar four paneled layout. In the example below, the story unfolds wordlessly as Lucy focuses her attention on the hands of a tiny clock that inches towards the time of 7 pm over three of the four panels,prolonging the suspense. At the stroke of the hour, she screams at Linus, her baby brother,"Bedtime!"
A very different approach to the idea of the "multi-panel" work is the collection of famous prayer books by the early 15th century French artists, the Limbourg Brothers. Each panel of these illuminated manuscripts represents a month from the calendar year and depicts scenes appropriate to the changing seasons.
Limbourg Brothers (Herman, Jean, Paul)
The Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry.c. 1416.
Illuminated prayer books for each month of the year.
Travel diaries and journals are often sequenced chronologically and provide rich insights into the lives of artists. The Romantic French painter, Eugène Delacroix, in traveling to Morocco in the early 19th century, kept a diary of his travels--a wonderful blend of drawing and text.
Eugène Delacroix, Moroccan Notebook, 1832.
Example of "before and after" images from a
commercial weight loss advertisement.
Generally, to register time, there needs to be some indication of motion or a perceived change in state. "Before and after" images tell a "wordless" story in multiple panels using the latter means. For example, the paired images from advertisements for weight loss or reconstructive surgery indicate significant changes in the appearance of an individual that imply not only physical transformation, but also the passage of time. Normally, the desired change (say, weight loss) is indicated as a logical sequence of two images where the left image (the side that Westerners begin reading)indicates the past and the image on the right indicates the present.
Example of "age progression" by forensic artists assisting Missing Kids search.
Somewhat more complex are sets of images that indicate possible futures. The mass mailings imploring "Have You Seen Me?" often show an image of a child or young adult--taken the last time they were seen--with the computer-generated image of how they might appear today and in the future. The three images below were created using standard predictive measures of how a human face ages over time. Loss of baby fat, elongation of features, deepening of the lines of the face, change of hair style, familial genetic traits, etc. are taken into account by the forensic artist. http://www.missingkids.com/html/ageprogession.html
While the above two examples represent a certain inherent "logic" in the relationship of images that suggest the passage of time, some artists have capitalized on our tendency to expect images that logically follow when "reading" from left to right. William Wegman, for example, in his photographic series, Dropping Milk, subverts our expectations of a logical outcome. Three images in sequence undermine what we know to be "true" about the physical laws that govern falling objects.
Inquiry Questions: What would your life look like as a series of pictures? Imagine a personal ritual or routine as a series of “frames” or still images. If you change the order of the pictures, does it matter?
William Wegman, Dropping Milk, 1970.
Test Yourself:
1. T or F. Because the act of painting, by nature, captures a "single moment in time," is not possible to represent several different times in one painting.
2. T or F. Multi-paneled works are generally limited to three or four frames to hold a viewer’s attention.
3. The following sequences of images utilize multiple panels to indicate the passage of time (choose the best answer):
A. The cartoon Peanuts, by Charles Schulz
B. The Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, c. 1416, by the Limbourg Brothers
C. Before and After weight loss images.
D. All of the above.
4. T or F. Generally, to register time, there needs to be some indication of motion or a perceived change in state of an object or event.
5. T or F. The invention of travel diaries and journals is roughly contemporaneous with the Industrial Revolution due largely to the increased mobility of the working class.
6. T or F. Visual Narratives that run counter to what we know to be true about the physical universe are never successful.
7. T or F. Since long before written history artists have used images to record past events and imaginatively project themselves into the future.
8. T or F. Symbolic time refers to the use of symbols or metaphors by artists to allude to time as a concept or to reflect on the nature of time passing.
9. T or F. It is thought that the Spanish painter, Salvador Dali, may have been influenced by Einstein's theories of relativity.
10. Time, change, and motion in the art are understood via many graphic conventions, including:
A. Blurred outlines.
B. Linear measurements.
C. Watermarks.
D. Artist proof.
E. All of the above.
11. Which of the following statements is true concerning photography and time?
A. Before the invention of fast photographic film, it was impossible to know if a galloping horse ever had all four legs off the ground.
B. Many photographers use slow shutter speeds to intentionally "blur" their images to convey a sense of motion.
C. Panning is a photographic technique in which a photographer actually tracks the motion of a moving object with his camera.
D. Time-lapse photography can occur in times ranging from less than a second to many years.
E. All of the above.
Time Symbolized
Define symbolic time: Symbolic time refers to the use of symbols or metaphors by artists to allude to time as a concept or to reflect on the nature of time passing.
From the beginning, artists have used images to symbolize their world, to record past events, and to imaginatively project themselves into future. The ability to simultaneously reflect on the past, dwell in the present, and speculate or anticipate future conditions is a special trait of human beings. Artists possess the added gift of finding visual expression for this kind of imaginative "time travel."
Artist-hunters depicted game animals on the walls of the the Caves of Lascaux in what is now Southern France some 15,000 years ago.
...On the right wall, the focal point of the composition, made up of a herd of small horses, is a large black cow whose
distinguishing feature is an unusual movement evocative of a fall. Could this be in anticipation of the successful hunt?
One explanation points to the purpose of 'ritual', a ritual thought to either insure fertility or a ritual to insure a successful hunt, or possibly both. By making a picture of an animal to be hunted, they ‘captured its spirit’, a belief that is still reflected in many of today's cultures.
The Renaissance Venetian painter, Titian, painted three heads alluding to the three ages of man: youth, maturity and old age. This series of portraits, painted when Titian was nearly eighty years old, could be said to be a metaphor for "a life lived." The left head resembles Titian himself in old age, the bearded central man has been thought to represent his son Orazio, and the youth may depict his cousin and heir, Marco Vecellio (born 1545). This "Janus head" seems to really be a portrait of one individual at different stages in their life.
Titian. Allegory of Time Governed by Prudence. c.1565.
Oil on canvas. The National Gallery, London, UK.
A very different approach to symbolizing the nature of time is taken by Salvador Dali in his famous work, The Persistence of Memory. Here the precision and reliability of time is called into question. While many speculate about the exact meaning of the painting, one interpretation is that Dali drew his conception of time and space from Einstein's theory of relativity.
Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931
http://www.salvadordali-prints.com/meanings.html
Graphic conventions
Time, change, and motion are understood via many methods of artistic shorthand. Some artists incorporate special visual effects in their drawing to indicate movement, speed, or action. The nature of movement is often reinforced by drawing dynamic marks (e.g., "speed lines") around the edges of the figure or object, or by using sketchy or intentionally "blurred" outlines.
from E.G.Lutz, Practical Graphic Figures, Batsford London 1925
13 x 19 cms. "Action and Movement Graphically Expressed"
Alberto Giacometti, Femme Qui Marche, 1955, 20.4 x 6.2 cm
http://www.adh.brighton.ac.uk/schoolofdesign/MA.COURSE/09/LMovement.html
Photographic Techniques
Since its invention in 1839, photography has revolutionized the way we understand time. By the 1880s, films and camera technology had progressed to the point where rapidly unfolding events could be "frozen" to reveal aspects of motion that the unaided eye could not perceive.
Shutter Speed
With the advent of faster films and faster lenses, photographers had a multitude of options available to them. By adjusting the shutter speed of the camera--that is, the speed at which the shutter opens and closes allowing light to reach the film--one can either "freeze" the image or allow for different levels of "blur" to dramatize the speed at which an object is moving.
Philippe Halsman, Dali Atomicus, 1948
R.J. Muna, 8:46, 2000. Photographic print, 16" x 20".
http://www.silentpicturesgallery.com/cgi-bin/readit.cgi?p02&1
Philippe Halsman, in his surreal portrait of the Spanish painter, Salvador Dali (above left), uses a fast shutter speed and strobe light to capture the dreamlike effects associated with the artist. Conversely, R.J. Muna (above right)uses a slow shutter speed to accentuate the flow of a dancer's movements.
Taking the idea of photography's capability to freeze motion to extremes, photographer Harold Edgerton (below) spent a lifetime creating astonishing images that revealed the heretofore "unseen" by arresting very rapidly unfolding events using a combination of fast film and stroboscopic lights.
Harold Edgerton, Cutting the Card Quickly, 1964
If the duration of an event is either extremely short (such as the time it takes a bullet to pass through a playing card) or extremely long (the time it takes a glacier to advance a few feet), the event is outside the normal bounds of human perception. In such cases, the problem of representing time becomes particularly challenging. Often, it is not until some new technology (e.g., high speed photography) or point of view (e.g., satellite photos of the earth), that we can really understand fully the scope of the problem.
Hubbard Glacier, Alaska 1985-1986
Rollover the image above to see glacial movement.
For more information about the image above, go to Portfolio: Glaciers.
For a hands-on experience of the effects of shutter speed, go to the Interactive Module IXa: Shutter Speeds.
Panning
Photographers can also use panning techniques, along with shutter speeds, to accentuate change and motion.
By panning with a moving object--that is, physically tracking the object in the lens of the camera--the object can be effectively fixed in time against a blurred background.
For more info, go to http://photographytips.com/page.cfm/872
Sequential and Overlapping Images
In the twentieth century, whole movements centered on motion and time. The work of the Futurists, for example, conveyed the velocity of a new industrial age as well as a political point of view through the use of multiple, overlapping images within a single frame. Marcel Duchamp also utilized a similar technique in his famous Nude Descending a Staircase.
Balla, Giacomo, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash (1912)
Oil on canvas, 89.8x109.8cm,
Buffalo: Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, 1912
It has been suggested that works like these would not have been possible without the efforts of researchers such as Etienne-Jules Marey in France and Eadweard Muybridge of the United States and Great Britain (note: unconventional spelling of "Edward" is correct). Both of these men pioneered the use of multi-image works as an aid to understanding human anatomy and animal locomotion.
Eadweard Muybridge
Muybridge's name today is associated primarily with the photography of movement. He first became involved in this field in 1872 when Leland Stanford, former Governor of California, asked him to photograph his famous horse, Occident. There was much controversy in horse racing circles at the time as to whether a trotting horse ever had all four feet off the ground at any one point in time. Cameras were placed in a line in a long shed and in front of each was a special shutter triggered electro-magnetically by the horse or the wheels of a sulky as it made contact with wires stretched across the track. The method was succesful in achieving the first photographs of sequences of movement and the results were published in Muybridge's Attitudes of Animals in Motion (1881).