Experimental Clock: Every Moment A Choice

Description

A fractal pattern that spreads it's branches out over time, illustrating that in every moment we have the opportunity to make a choice. The paths these choices lay out for us might change over time or cross with other paths we could take, but when we are feeling stuck or trapped, never forget we always have a choice. Personally I often feel as though something I do doesn't matter, or that I have to follow a specific process, or that it doesn't matter if I put a task off. I created this clock in the hopes to remind and inspire me that I can always choose a different path and there's no telling where it may lead.

Design Process

Of the three concept sketches for this piece, the finished product is actually a combination of two the ideas. The first was to show the passage of time using the growth of a tree or its seasonal cycle, the second to have ling split into new directions with every second. In the process of testing out each of these sketches, I found that the tree and splitting lines synergized well together and I saw that I could give the message of making a choice using a tree shape and create what I think is a more visually engaging piece.

Here is the pseudo code I used to develop the concept at first, but the final code ended up looking quite different- strokeCol; //setup Translate(origin); //draw Set s, linePosX, linePosY; Set stroke weight and color; //draw first line If (passedTime > totalTime && s < 1) { drawFirstLine(); incrementS(); } else if (passedTime > totalTime && s >= 1) { calcOrigins(); drawLines(); incrementS(); } else { If (s >= 60) { s = 0; } } I became stumped when trying to figure out how to keep making multiple lines every second, and in looking around online found the code to make a fractal pattern from this very good hacking blog https://breaksome.tech/ This blog features a number of different fractal pattern vairations rendered in p5.js, including one that lined up perfectly with the look I was trying to achieve. After reading through the code and taking the time to see how it works, I incorporated it into my sketch and modified it so that the angle the branches splitting apart changes over time instead of with cursor movement, and also made other visual adjustments to achieve the look I wanted.

Reflection

At first I found myself drawn to natural signifiers of the passage of time, like the day/night cycle, seasons, feeding my pet cat, as well as wanting to adhere to a standard 24 hour system. While I still like the natural systems of telling time, through life cycles and the seasons, I wanted to try and break away from the modern time keeping system. While doing this project, I learned that it was not quite as easy to work with time as I thought it would be, and by honing in on the core idea behind the clock I could still get the feeling I wanted from it without all the bells and whistles.