Last week I presented my research on the subjectivity and objectivity of time. and my simple definition of time. Time itself does not exist, it is just a virtual unit of scale that we have created to measure changes in material space.
As mentioned in A Brief History of the Time Economy, capitalism has changed the way we perceive time. Clocks were originally designed to limit worker hours and increase productivity. Therefore, the time we speak of is artificially set. The objective time of life, measured by the clock, was originally a subjective human construct, only to be made objective by capitalism through absolute power. It is as if, through absolute power, Those in power refer to deer as horses.
Einstein said: “Time is an illusion of perception”. Because the disappearance of some things is the change of the things themselves .
Time is invisible, but invisible time leaves traces, shadows, and sounds in visible things, so time can be measured in these three ways. Time is invisible, But invisible time leaves traces, shadows or sounds in visible things. First week I documented the torment my pillow went through this week. I’m used to working in bed and when I leave my bed my pillow takes on a weird shape. How much it deforms depending on how long I stay in bed, for example when I get up in the morning, it even takes on an even weirder shape.
This week, I mainly conducted recording experiments on three aspects: light and shadow, sound and traces, trying to find a form that can express subjective measurement of time from the experiment.
In the experiment of measuring light and shadow, I recorded the state of light entering my room through the windows at different times of the day. Including changes in the brightness of the room and the movement of light and shadow.
In the experiment of measuring time by sound, I try to judge the time point by recording the representative sounds of different time periods, For example, birds call in the morning will be clearer and will accompany the noise of the morning market. Insect chirps are more pronounced during the hottest times of the day. And the honking of horns caused by heavy traffic during the afternoon rush hour. In the evening, there will be sounds of night entertainment. There are unique sounds at different times.
The third aspect is the measurement of time through traces. Recorded from the perspective of daily habitual behavior. For example, time to drink a glass of water or coffee, time to smoke a cigarette. When I recorded my roommate’s smoking, I found that smoking addiction is also an active response produced by the individual’s body, just like sleepiness and hunger, both belong to a physiological response. The difference is that the timing of each person’s addiction to smoking is different.
My roommate smokes a lot every day, and this is the number I keep track of on one of those days. According to her description, about 40 minutes after each cigarette, there will be a feeling of psychological emptiness, and can’t help but light the next one. Therefore, I think the length of time from the end of the last cigarette to the next smoker can be used as a subjective time unit. Every ignition can be used as a point in time. And Develop an absolutely subjective clock based on the number of cigarettes an individual smokes per day.
My plan is to record how long it takes from the time one cigarette is lit and smoked until the next cigarette is lit, that is, how long the body needs nicotine as a subjective individual, as a unit of time in my subjective clock. The number of time units in a day is then measured by the number of times it is played in a loop throughout the day. Smoking is often a way for people to relax when they are tired at work. In other words, it’s more like an act of defiance on the go at work，which is the opposite of the idea that capitalism has set time to control people’s working hours and create more productivity.
So what I’m thinking about is putting a subjective clock on how long our bodies need caffeine and nicotine, which can be addictive, and maybe investigating how much time different people need. Therefore, we can also make a new definition of the clock through our own subjective feelings. I plan to create an absolutely subjective time clock through personal definition and measurement of time, criticizing and fundamentally subverting this artificial construction of objective existence.