Just in time for the reopening of the Exploratorium at its new location, I completed my Artist-in-Residence project, Time Shift.
The exhibit is for the museum’s new Observatory gallery, which explores human and natural processes in the local environment. My intention was to use time-lapse techniques to reveal patterns and processes that typically go unnoticed.
Over several months I shot a series of sequences around the Bay Area, of subjects such as ships at the Port of Oakland, the cycle of tides, people commuting through downtown San Francisco, weather, and airplane traffic at SFO.
I created a custom iPad application, which visitors use to browse the archive, and select videos which are then displayed on a large external monitor.
Here is a compilation of some of the footage used in the exhibit:
Time Shift Compilation from Ken Murphy on Vimeo.
I’ve also created an app for iPhone and iPad based on the project.
A note for Ken Murphy –
It might be fun to see the images sorted on the other axis. That is, have a grid 360 across x 24 down. The first box starts showing the time 00:00 on Jan 1. The next box starts with 00:04 on Jan 1. The next box shows 00:08 on Jan 1. The last box on the first line shows 01:56 on Jan 1. The last box in the grid shows 23:56 on Jan 1. Press play. Each box continues to show the same time of day, but the image changes to Jan 2, then Jan 3, so forth, for 365 images. Obviously, some will just be dark the whole time – maybe leave them out. Also, changing weather could lead to a seizure-inducing flicker of grey/blue squares. All in all, probably not as much fun as this one, but still could be interesting to see. With the data and the programming already done, it doesn’t seem like it would be *too* hard …
Two cents.