First of all, I need to clarify the following questions. What time is it? What did they think about time in ancient, medieval, and modern philosophy and fine arts and photography? What symbols do visual and film art use to represent time?
What is time in a physical, real sense? If time is nothing but movement, change, development, change, etc. How has it been and is it represented in the visual and film arts?
What is time? Does time exist without motion? Does light exist without time? Does time exist only as long as the individual exists? Is there time outside the individual? How can I represent this with my photographs? How could I materialize time and the non-existent present? I myself am the now and my existence, my being here is time?
Brief historical overview of the concept of time
The concept of time has evolved significantly from Aristotle‘s ancient Greek philosophy to the present day, impacting various fields such as philosophy, science, and technology. In the 4th century BCE, Aristotle viewed time as the measurement of change within the context of motion and events, a perspective that influenced medieval scholastic thought. Aristotle emphasized the relational aspect of time. He argued that time exists only in relation to the movement or change of objects. For Aristotle, time is not an independent entity but rather depends on the existence of events or processes unfolding in the universe.
During the Renaissance, scientists like Galileo Galilei and René Descartes challenged this view, introducing the idea of time as an independent and uniform entity. The 17th-century development of accurate timekeeping devices further solidified this understanding. In the 19th century, Immanuel Kant emphasized the subjective nature of time, while physicists like Hermann Minkowski and Albert Einstein revolutionized scientific understanding through theories of relativity. Einstein’s work challenged the notion of absolute time, demonstrating its relativity to the observer’s motion and gravitational field.
Martin Heidegger, had a unique perspective on time. In his seminal work “Being and Time,” Heidegger explores the concept of time in depth. According to Heidegger, time is not merely a linear progression of moments but rather a fundamental aspect of human existence and experience. He introduces the concept of “Dasein,” which refers to human being or existence. For Heidegger, time is intimately tied to Dasein’s existence. He argues that human beings are always “thrown” into a world that is already in progress, and our understanding of ourselves and the world is shaped by our temporal existence. Time, therefore, is not something external to us but is inherent in our being-in-the-world. Heidegger distinguishes between two modes of time: “clock time” (which he calls “world time”) and “authentic time” (which he calls “temporality”). Clock time is the objective, measurable time that we use to organize our lives and activities, such as seconds, minutes, and hours. However, Heidegger believes that this way of understanding time obscures its deeper meaning. In the present day, discussions about period interdisciplinary perspectives, explore philosophical, physical, and neurological aspects, addressing questions related to determinism, free will, and the nature of temporal experience.
Henri Bergson’s concept of time diverges significantly from the traditional views prevalent in Western philosophy at his time. Duration (La durée): Bergson’s central idea regarding time is the concept of “duration” (French: la durée). He argues that traditional conceptions of time as a series of discrete moments or as a linear progression are inadequate. Instead, Bergson proposes that real-time is a continuous flow of becoming, characterized by qualitative change and irreversibility. Bergson distinguishes between two types of time: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative time is the time of clocks and calendars, measured in units such as seconds and minutes. In contrast, qualitative time, or duration, is subjective and cannot be precisely measured. It is the experienced, lived time that encompasses the richness of human consciousness and experience.
François Laruelle, has also offered his perspective on time, albeit in a manner quite distinct from Heidegger. In Laruelle’s philosophy, time is often discussed within the context of his broader concept of “non-philosophy.” Non-philosophy attempts to move beyond the limitations of traditional philosophy by proposing a radical reorientation of thought. Laruelle’s treatment of time is influenced by his rejection of the privileging of philosophy as the ultimate mode of thought. Instead, he seeks to develop a non-philosophical approach that does not rely on philosophical foundations. In this context, time becomes a crucial element of his critique. One key aspect of Laruelle’s approach to time is his notion of “non-chronos.” He argues that traditional philosophical conceptions of time are based on a linear, chronological understanding that is limited and inadequate. Non-chronos, on the other hand, refers to a mode of time that transcends these conventional temporal frameworks. In Laruelle’s view, non-chronos is not bound by the usual divisions of past, present, and future. Instead, it represents a more radical, immanent conception of time that is not structured by sequential progression. Non-chronos is characterized by its openness, indeterminacy, and non-linearity. Furthermore, Laruelle’s understanding of time is often intertwined with his broader exploration of concepts such as immanence, radical immanence, and the Real. These ideas suggest that time is not simply a feature of human experience or cognition but is fundamental to the very structure of reality itself.
Stephen Hawking, approached the concept of time from the perspective of modern physics, particularly through the lens of Einstein’s theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. One of Hawking’s key contributions was his understanding of space-time. According to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, space-time is a four-dimensional continuum that combines the three dimensions of space with the fourth dimension of time. In this view, time is not separate from space but is interconnected with it, forming a unified fabric that is influenced by mass and energy. Hawking delved into the implications of Einstein’s theory of relativity, which suggests that time is not absolute but is relative depending on an observer’s motion and gravitational field. This means that time can appear to pass differently for observers in different states of motion or gravitational potential. Hawking also explored the concept of the “arrow of time,” which refers to the asymmetrical nature of time’s progression from past to future.
Light cone in 2D space plus a time dimension.( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_cone)
Introducing the concept of time in the visual arts in the 21st century
Media artists, like filmmakers, photographers, and digital artists, often explore the concept of time in their work, leveraging various techniques and technologies to convey temporal themes. Here are some ways time is conceptualized and utilized by media artists:
Temporal Manipulation frequently manipulates time through editing, montage, and special effects to alter the perception of time within their work. Techniques such as slow motion, time-lapse, and reverse motion allow artists to manipulate the pace and rhythm of time, creating visual and auditory experiences that challenge linear temporality.
Temporal Layering may employ multiple layers of time within a single work, juxtaposing past, present, and future elements to create complex temporal compositions. Through techniques such as flashback, foreshadowing, and parallel editing, artists can convey nonlinear narratives and evoke a sense of temporal depth and complexity.
Temporal Compression and Expansion often compress or expand time to condense or elongate temporal experiences within their work. Time-lapse photography, for example, condenses long periods of time into short sequences, revealing gradual changes and transformations. Conversely, artists may use extended duration shots or real-time sequences to immerse viewers in prolonged temporal experiences.
Temporal Abstraction abstracts time by representing it in non-representational or symbolic forms. Through abstract imagery, soundscapes, and temporal structures, artists may evoke subjective experiences of time, exploring themes such as memory, dreams, and psychological time.
Temporal Narratives frequently use narrative structures to explore temporal themes, crafting stories that unfold over time and engage with concepts of past, present, and future. Through linear, nonlinear, or fragmented storytelling techniques, artists can convey complex temporal relationships and explore the passage of time within the narrative form.
Temporal Contexts often situate their work within specific temporal contexts, reflecting on historical, cultural, and social dimensions of time. By referencing historical events, cultural traditions, or contemporary phenomena, artists can explore how time shapes and informs human experience.
Overall, media artists engage with the concept of time in diverse and innovative ways, leveraging the expressive potential of their chosen mediums to explore temporal themes, challenge conventional notions of temporality, and evoke subjective experiences of time within their work.
In the 21st century, many photographers explore the theme of time in their work, each approaching it from unique perspectives and employing various techniques.
Hiroshi Sugimoto is known for his long-exposure photographs, particularly his series “Seascapes” and “Theaters.” By using extended exposures, Sugimoto captures the passage of time in a single image, blurring the boundary between past and present. His work often evokes a sense of timelessness and contemplation.
Gregory Crewdson is renowned for his elaborately staged cinematic photographs that often depict surreal and enigmatic scenes of suburban life. His series “Twilight” and “Beneath the Roses” explore themes of alienation, longing, and the passage of time, creating narratives that are both haunting and mesmerizing.
Andreas Gursky‘s large-scale, digitally manipulated photographs often depict vast landscapes, urban environments, and crowded spaces. Through his meticulous compositions and digital editing techniques, Gursky explores themes of globalization, consumerism, and the relentless march of time in contemporary society.
Dayanita Singh‘s work often revolves around themes of memory, history, and the passage of time. Her series “File Room” and “Sent a Letter” incorporate elements of archival photography and personal narrative to reflect on the transient nature of memory and the archival process.
Trevor Paglen’s photography explores themes of surveillance, technology, and the concept of deep time. His series “The Last Pictures” and “The Other Night Sky” incorporate long exposures and astrophotography techniques to capture the invisible traces of human presence in the cosmos, raising questions about humanity’s place in the vast expanse of time and space.
Michael Wesely known for his long-term exposure photography, Wesely captures the passage of time in his images by leaving the camera shutter open for extended periods, ranging from several hours to years. His projects, such as “Open Shutter” and “Time Works,” reveal the gradual changes in landscapes, architecture, and natural elements over time.
Taryn Simon‘s photographic projects often investigate the passage of time through the lens of history, politics, and memory. In series such as “An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar” and “A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters,” she explores the complexities of lineage, inheritance, and the enduring impact of past events on present-day realities.
In 21st-century cinematography, many filmmakers explore the theme of time in various ways, whether through narrative structure, visual techniques, or thematic elements.
Christopher Nolan is renowned for his intricate narratives and manipulation of time in films such as “Memento,” “Inception,” and “Interstellar.” He often employs non-linear storytelling and innovative editing techniques to explore themes of memory, perception, and the subjective experience of time.
Richard Linklater‘s “Before” trilogy (“Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset,” “Before Midnight”) follows the evolving relationship between its characters over the course of several decades, capturing moments in time and exploring the passage of years. Additionally, his film “Boyhood,” shot over a period of 12 years with the same cast, offers a unique cinematic portrayal of time’s passage.
Denis Villeneuve‘s film “Arrival” delves into the concept of non-linear time perception through its narrative about linguistic communication with extraterrestrial beings. The film explores themes of memory, language, and the cyclical nature of time.
Terrence Malick‘s films, such as “The Tree of Life” and “The Thin Red Line,” often incorporate philosophical reflections on time, nature, and the human condition. Through poetic imagery and nonlinear storytelling, Malick explores the interconnectedness of past, present, and future.
Christian Marclay is a visual artist known for his innovative work in the realm of contemporary art, particularly in the medium of video art and installations. One of his most famous works is “The Clock,” a 24-hour video installation that consists of thousands of film clips edited together to create a real-time montage that reflects the passage of time. Marclay’s “The Clock” offers a unique perspective on the concept of time. By meticulously compiling and synchronizing film clips from a vast array of movies, Marclay creates a seamless cinematic experience that unfolds in sync with the actual time. Viewers are immersed in a constantly evolving narrative that mirrors the progression of time in the real world. Through “The Clock,” Marclay explores the interconnectedness of cinema, time, and human experience. The work blurs the boundaries between fiction and reality. By incorporating a diverse range of film genres and styles, Marclay highlights the universal nature of time and its representation in popular culture. In essence, Marclay’s “The Clock” can be seen as a meditation on the nature of time itself, inviting viewers to contemplate how time shapes our perception of the world and our place within it. Through his innovative approach to video art, Marclay offers a unique and thought-provoking exploration of temporality.
In Bela Tarr’s films, time is often depicted as a palpable and almost tangible element, with long takes, minimal cuts, and slow-moving camera movements contributing to a sense of temporal immersion. Through these techniques, Tarr extends the duration of scenes, allowing viewers to inhabit the temporal rhythms of the characters’ lives and the environments they inhabit. Béla Tarr may not offer explicit theoretical discussions on the nature of time, but his films serve as powerful cinematic reflections on temporality, inviting viewers to confront the ineffable qualities of time and its significance in shaping human lives and experiences.
Proof of the theorem, materialization of concept of time, concept of existent and non-existent in my work.
First of all, as a photographer, I want to find tangible, presentable, understandable evidence to visualise my theory. Imagine you go hiking in the mountains and you are so immensely lucky to see the sun and the moon in the sky at the same time. This doesn’t happen very often, but if the moon and sun are in the right conjunction and there are no clouds in the sky, you can catch a glimpse of both celestial bodies at the same time. As well as mountains and a man with a watch head walking by. Natural objects, man and the moon have no light source of their own, so what we see is light reflected from the surface. The Sun, on the other hand, transmit light directly, which is part of the energy produced by the fusion of Hydrogen with Helium.
Illustration of my theory
Suppose the clock-headed man is standing 10 metres from the camera lens. The mountains are 5 km away, the moon 384 400 km and the Sun 150 680 000 km. The camera and we perceive everything as being at the same moment in time. But this is not true. Because light needs time to reach the sensory cells in our eyes, what we see is an illusory representation of different pasts at the same time.
Speed = distance/time
From this it is easy to deduce how much time it takes for light reflected from different objects to reach our eyes or the camera.
Time = Distance/speed
In other words, a multitude of different pasts, which, if recorded on a light-sensitive surface and time-stamped, will store in one time a variety of past information, which we identify with a particular now.
The Sun is 150 680 000 km away, so sunlight takes 500 seconds to get to us. It means that when you look at the Sun, you see it as it was 8 minutes ago.
Light travels at 300,000 kilometres per second, so it takes about 1.3 seconds for light to travel from the Moon back to the Earth. In other words, the Moon is 1.3 light-seconds away from the Earth.
The light reflected from the mountains and the clock head reaches the observer’s eyes ten thousandths of a second later.
By Mary C. Potter & Brad Wyble & Carl Erick Hagmann & Emily S. McCourt, “Detecting meaning in RSVP at 13 ms per picture”, people need an average of 13 milliseconds to interpret a picture. These 13 milliseconds are the time it takes for the information from the sensory cells of the human eye to pass to the brain to form the image.
Due to the laws of physics and man’s physiological fitness, the perception of the present is impossible for man.
Since time is nothing but motion/change, and there is no time without motion according to Aristotle, my research on time was first focused on motion. How could I capture a moving film in a single photograph? Sugimoto has tried to capture several movies with two-hour exposures in his ‘Theaters and Drive-Ins’ series but always ended up with a perfectly white image of the film.
©Theaters by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Regency, San Francisco, 1992
“To watch a two-hour movie is simply to look at 172800 photographic after images’, he has explained. ‘I wanted to photograph a movie, with all its appearance of time and motion, in order to stop it again”.
Sugimoto, Hiroshi
Since I had experimented a lot in the past with ordinary flat scanners as digital image scanning devices, I had the idea of making a very short film that would take as long as it takes the scanner to scan an A4 sheet of paper. Once the film was ready, I started the film on a tablet, which I scanned in the meantime. This enabled me to compress a moving film into a single image using a moving data scanner. In other words, I was able to capture a 10-second film in a photo. The result can be seen here.
Printed 10 secounded scanned shortfilm
If I could build a scanner that would scan for two hours, it would be possible to record a movie. Thus, it would be possible to watch a two-hour movie in a single moment. These time strips would obviously draw an infinite narrow strip on an A4 sheet of paper.
Time was still at the center of my interest. Before my existence, I did not exist for an infinite amount of time. Not only did I not exist, but time did not exist for me. I entered time with my existence. With my death, I leave time and cease to exist for an infinite time, and time no longer exists for me.
Am I myself the now and my existence, my being here is time?
These thoughts led me to make the short film My Time. (There are four scenes in the film at the same time in four frames. One shows time and continuous movement, the second one shows my day in 8 minutes. The third frame shows the time-making machine and finally Moirpae knitting and cutting the thread of life.)
As well as the short film Geza Clockhead’s time. (Which shows the negligible brevity of human existence.)
At the same time, I also created my montage, which was planned to be infinitely long, which was only 3 meters long, since unfortunately I only had 3 meters available for the exhibition. According to my plans, it should be as long as there is space for the exhibition. It is a black, i.e. empty, infinitely long 30 cm wide print with a tiny dot on which my own negligible existence vibrates.
I also made a memorial bench with the sign Geza Clockhed did not exist for an infinite time on a seaside promenade in a small English town in Portishead. With this artwork, I reflected on the infinitely short time of our existence.
In the vast expanse of philosophical inquiry, few concepts are as fundamental and profound as existence and identity. These concepts form the bedrock of our understanding of reality and shape our perceptions of the world around us and our place within it. Exploring the depths of existence and grappling with questions of identity can lead to profound insights into the nature of being and the essence of humanity.
Existence, in its simplest form, refers to the state of being present in the world. It encompasses everything that is, has been, or will be. From the smallest subatomic particles to the grandest celestial bodies, existence permeates every corner of the universe.
At the heart of existence lies the question of identity. Identity is the unique set of characteristics that defines an individual or entity and distinguishes it from others. Identity is shaped by a myriad of factors including genetics, culture, experiences, and personal choices. It is a complex and multifaceted concept that evolves over time, influenced by the interplay between internal and external forces.
Identity encompasses the set of characteristics, beliefs, and experiences that distinguish an individual from others. From a neuroscientific perspective, identity emerges from the complex interplay of genetic predispositions, neural networks, and environmental influences. Brain imaging studies have elucidated neural correlates of self-referential processing, shedding light on the neural basis of identity formation.
The identity of the individual is not visible only in his appearance. In fact, it is hidden and we need to know it based on its actions, behaviour, writings, works, and behaviour. I show this hiddenness in my lithophane cube artwork. The cube has a series of white ribbed patterns on its surface. However, as we illuminate it from within, the real thing emerges. Photograph-like images that have been hidden from the viewer’s eyes until now are revealed, as is the identity of each person for the superficial viewer.
Identity is a complex concept that encompasses various factors and influences. It’s essentially how individuals perceive themselves and how they are perceived by others within a social context. Identity is the collection of characteristics, beliefs, roles, and affiliations that distinguish an individual and shape their sense of self.
A person’s individuality is constructed through a complex interplay of various factors, including genetics, environment, experiences, culture, and personal choices.
This is what I wanted to show with the artwork below. I projected my face onto paper cylinders placed close to each other. So I didn’t get a continuous portrait, but a picture made up of pieces. Just as identity is not built from a single aspect.
I extend my investigations to experiments with projected images. I find moving images projected onto different surfaces very exciting, especially if I can add sound to the better effect.