rynTAU

It seems like all I do is link to videos these days..

Found this music video on the ecAr blog. The fact that it starts with timezones, animation and architecture had me sold. :)

I tried to get a picture when it came through, but my efforts were all for, um.. naught. I’ll settle for this flickr set though:

My mind keeps coming back to Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos.

The premise of both books deals with String Theory, but as an aside the books are great for understanding the history of physics from Einstein to present day. My fascination comes with the concepts of time discussed within. Time was originally thought to be a constant, unchanging flow. Einstein’s theories of relativity showed that the passage of time can be sped up or slowed down depending on one’s point of view. From what I can gather, however, it still flows in one dimension, even if the passage through that dimension is not constant.

So, what if time has the extra dimensions of depth and width. How does one graphically show length, depth and width of time? My first thought, which I sketched out below, is segmenting each timezone of the world onto a sheet of paper, and stacking them one behind the other creating a landscape of time. Huge mountains form over Asia, a large valley appears around Greenland, and tall buildings arise out of the Atlantic and Pacific.

Another way to look at it is a landscape of non-conformity. The entirety of Argentina juts out of the landscape because the country chose the timezone of Brazil rather than the one that is most obvious geographically. The largest “mountain” in this drawing is of China, which includes its entire country within a single timezone.

Click here for the original timezone map.

It’s obvious. Tetris leads to vandalism.

I’ve finally posted some photos from my December trip to Argentina here

Shipping containers awaiting final destination in Barcelona, Spain

I’m starting a new web project. I know, I know.. the old one isn’t finished yet, but I can do both. For the time being it’s called Remnants, and it’s about photodocumenting (and mapping) what’s left from the Pacific Electric railway in Los Angeles, once the largest system in the world. I’ve mapped out most of the system, and will be putting them up one piece at a time, but I will leave you some tidbits.
The Hollywood Slash, Mt. Lowe cable rail, and the Edendale cut
[old map]

There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.
- Unknown

Roses are #FF0000 Violets are #0000FF All my base Are belong to you
- Unknown

This pretty sums up the evolution of 3D throughout my career. I remember the professor of my animation class asking me what technological advance I wanted to see in the future. The people from FRONT created it. The ability to create objects from movement still fascinates me.

UPDATE: It looks like the video is no longer available. Which is a bummer, because it shows the whole process of motion-capturing a 3D sketch, and translating it into a a physical form. The “printer” uses a laser beam to solidify liquid plastic. There are some photos here.