HOW DO WE STOP TIME?​

FABRICATING EPHEMERAL EVENTS

​

january - march 2016

​

teaching | analysis | data visualizations

​

Designed and taught a six week winter session course at the Rhode Island School of Design [RISD] - focused on creating alternative renderings of time.

​

Time is constantly in flux, and often undervalued in its complexity. However, we can challenge preconceived notions of time and explore alternative methods to express it through the process of making. In the first half of the course, students will be given instructions each week to construct, participate, and record a time-based activity or “event.” Ranging from dripping paint at different heights to attaching a pen to a moving pendulum, these “event” exercises act as an alternative method to render a duration of time. Students will then analyze and interpret each visual through drawing or model to infer systems such as structure, process, duration, and/or other forms of reflection. This enables the visualization of immaterial characteristics often found within the design process. These 2D findings will then undergo 3D manipulations and explorations, applicable to a variety of scales or programmatic purposes. Final outcomes are a “time freeze” series of works: including the event, analytical drawings, and 3D models. Students should have a strong interest in digital model making and fabrication. Overall, the course is interdisciplinary in its approach to visualizing and fabricating complex data to convey analysis-and maybe even stopping time. 

​

Selected work featured below are explorations of Kelly He, Minji Kim and Kay Liang.