USPPS — Past Postal Services.
An exhibition that explores a futuristic semi-realistic relationship with time
Background
This work is deriving from the exploration of what I call “different times on same line“. As Time is a reality layer we perceive in a certain way, there is a major factor of how long an action feels. Like in weather time may have a “feels like” parameter. If feelings are a way to measure, what is it based on? Is pain a time machine (suffocation?) as it makes time feels longer? The state of boredom? sadness? Excitement? thrill? can state of laughter make time feels like its passes faster?
Then I started thinking about what is hacking time. What do we do that manipulates with the “normal flow” of time? When we are late we may run, take a taxi instead of the bus, take shortcuts, all in order to change the equation/calculation of the time it would normally take us. So when we run are we actually hacking time? is sleeping a sort of freezing time?
Past is memory, the present are senses (perceive) future is creativity (predict)
I explored the representation of time in the digital world from video and sound controllers (play/pause/fwd etc), to content creation programs (key framing, changes over time etc).
The process brought me to many questions about the impact of a service like that:
- Can I make people reflect about the importance of knowledge through out their life span?
- Can I make people think deeply about decisions considered long gone?
- Can I arouse a thought of a real application that changes the perception of time?
- Can this open debate about the ethical relations to the subject?
- What regulation would we expect to this tech? (implications)
- What are privacy aspects as an exhibition?
Why is it semi realistic
Ronald Mallett, a theoretical physicist from the University of Connecticut came up recently with a theory based on Einstein general relativity (the connection btw space and light). Mallet talks about creating a light loop which will allow bending time then sending bytes of data to the past. This serves also as the explanation for why no one came to visit from the future so far, and that’s because one would be able to go back in time from the moment this machine will be invented but wont be able to go further in the past before the existence of the machine.