Advanced Play Design - Week 2 - Play and Time

Advanced Play Design

Week 2: Play and time

Annotation

RATIONALE:

What I have been doing: For this week’s response of Play and time, I worked and played with photographs and nature. Since we all are in quarantine and inside our homes, we have limited contact with nature. I used to notice the trees outside my apartment from my window all through the lockdown. At one point, I started to notice the change of seasons as reflected by nature. This also suggested me that the time in quarantine was passing by in terms of change of seasons too. I linked the two in my mind and linked the change of season reflection by nature and passing of days and months in quarantine. I started recording the change in terms of photographs. I noticed from my window how over the days, the trees are losing their leaves which is indicative of approaching winter. I also contemplated upon how over the months we are living indoors in quarantine. I started to document the falling of leaves of the trees outside my apartment. I used to click pictures of those trees every 2-3 days over a period of almost 3 months. I made it a point to document them every 2-3 days.

For this week’s response of play and time, I have created a video by combining all the pictures that I have clicked. This stop-motion style video reflects how seasons change and time passes.

Why I have done this: I decided to work with nature for indicating time because I feel nature has the most power to indicate time. Even in the era of no technology or watches, time was indicated with the help of nature. During ancient times, people looked towards the moon and the stars to indicate the day and position of the sun to indicate the time. I decided to work with time and nature playfully. Even in this video, I was able to portray time with the help of changing seasons.

METHOD: In order to create this video, I have used the most basic method, which is, clicking pictures. I clicked these pictures every 2-3 days for a period of 3 months in order to reflect upon time and nature. Furthermore, I arranged the pictures in after effects and rendered the video.

CONTEXT:

Similar works regarding nature have been done by Max Rive and Erin Babnik, who are both nature photographers and document the best of nature on their cameras. I got inspired by the way they document nature. Their works can be accessed on their websites:

https://erinbabnik.com/

https://www.maxrivephotography.com/index

REFERENCE: For the inspiration to create this project, I researched about ancient ways to keep time. I got to know that many nature-related devices were used by people during ancient times like a sundial, a moon clock, water clock and many more.

I came across the following which gave me an inspiration to work with nature and reflect time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_timekeeping_devices

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/88484/15-old-fashioned-ways-keeping-time

I also got inspired by one of the readings in our reading list: “Playful Identities: The Ludification of Digital Media Cultures”, Part II, Play for time.

Music for the video has been taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZYbU82GVz4

REFLECTION/OUTCOME: With the creation of the project and documentation of nature, I was able to notice how time passes. It was after compiling the pictures that I realised that I have been documenting the trees for 3 months now. I was able to realise how nature takes its own time to reveal things to humans and how even during lockdown, when the whole world was still, nature was still working with time. I felt this was one playful thing that I looked forward to each day. I looked forward to click the picture of those trees every 2-3 days. I clicked these pictures just for myself to look back upon time in the quarantine days. With this opportunity to reflect time playfully and in my own way, I thought this was the best way to convey my interpretation and portray my pictures. I also realised that sometimes, play can be about discipline and routine too! As clicking these pictures was a mandatory regime for me that I enjoyed.