Invasion of the time eaters.

"It has been established that the discovery of the camera obscura was accidental, sometime in early 11th century Egypt. A Muslim named Abu Ali Al-Hasan Ibn al-Haitham (965-1039 CE), known in the West as Al-Hazen, is accredited for its discovery while carrying out practical experiments on optics. [...] In the experiment he undertook, in order to establish that light travels in time and with speed, he says:

'If the hole was covered with a curtain and the curtain was taken off, the light traveling from the hole to the opposite wall will consume time.'"
(Wikipedia)

Response to Brant Gallery Camera Obscura:
Whoa, that was nuts. We were in the dark for a really long time, it seems. We saw the image on the paper first, which was brighter and more in focus due to its concentration, which makes sense. Its the same thing as when you have a shorter exposure time when the enlarger is closer to the paper than when it is higher up and farther away when printing. It took us longer to see the image on the back wall but it was visible eventually. The thing we, or at least I thought was the most interesting about the camera obscura was that it captured moving objects in space in real time. It does consume time, the way Al-Hazen said. It projects exactly what is happening without the use of technology or any sort of unusual delay. I thought it would be wild to be in a camera obscura that was projecting in the rain or during a rain storm, but obviously the likelihood of that happening isn't very good seeing as the light during a rain storm probably wouldn't be powerful enough to project. My group was talking about how the camera obscura is similar to a giant eye, in the sense that it gathers reflected light and projects the images upside down. Your brain conforms to the image and turns things right side up, but that is not how light normally reflects.

Brant Still Life Camera Obscura:
I had problems drawing the still life correctly, mostly because I couldn't see my paper but partly because I can't draw. The strongest parts of the reflection where the hand and the bottle, in fact those were the only objects visible at all. This could possible be due to the fact that they had the most surface area exposed directly to the light? At any rate, they were the brightest and most recognizable objects. Still, my sketch of them just looks like disfigured pancakes in space.

(image should be turned 90 degrees CCW)

Wacky Egyptians

Who were they?:
One of the earliest methods of keeping time was invented by the Egyptians.

Why did they keep time?:
The Egyptians kept time partially to track seasons, as they were agricultural and therefore concerned with seasons. However, priests and astronomers had to keep time more specifically, watching it almost to the hour, in order to perform daily rituals for important religious festivals.

Did their relationship to time reflect inherent beliefs?:
Yes, the whole development of a system of timekeeping that could be used in the dark as well as in the daytime was necessary due to their meticulous religious rituals.

What did they keep time with?:
They kept time with a water clock, an alabaster funnel-shaped pot with 11 fake holes and 1 real one at the bottom. The total of 12 holes were meant to correspond with the 12 hours of the night, a time when sundials were not useful. The water clock was filled with water and slowly escaped through the hole in the bottom. In order to see the time, one had to look in the pot and see where the nearest fake hole was in relation to the water level.

Who were the timekeepers?:
Mostly astronomers and priests.

Quod me nutrit, me destruit

Okay, response to James Turell. I really liked the concept of a house of religious or spiritual meaning having that big skylight to the outdoors. I liked what that link symbolized in terms of connection with the earth/universe/nature etcetera. I like churches a lot, but I think if I were going to go somewhere to worship or be reflective I would rather have it be somewhere more like Turell's meeting house. The skylight reminded me of a connection to God, and of a tranquility that maybe is only attainable through personal spiritual reflection like that.

On a slightly more unrelated note, I also liked how the actual show/section was structured. I thought the honesty of Turell's situation was really cool and refreshing, I though it was interesting how he admitted that this huge project that his life revolves around has sort of also destroyed other aspects of his life, aspects that as a society we probably (perhaps superficially) value more than art. I feel like conviction to anything thats as strong as that is bound to curdle fragile things like relationships around it, but again, a pull to create that is as powerful as that is something that cannot be ignored HENCE my creative and intellectual title. Probably considered less creative and intelligent now that Angelina Jolie has it tattooed somewhere on her body. Poor latin, it never saw it coming.

As for Turell's work, we didn't really see much of it in the video. I didn't really understand the MFA piece they showed, but that could be because it was hard to understand the composition of the installation on the TV screen. There were also parts of the crater that I didn't really grasp but that could easily be because I'm not very good spacially. I understood the concept, though...I think. I understood the window that lets you experience the rotation/angle of the earth. They kind of lost me on the lunar standstill, I don't really know what that means.

On an extremely unrelated note, this new blog experience thing is kind of trippy for me, I used Blogger Beta back in the day and posting an image was way more of a hassle. It involved image tags and everything.