The feeling that time is flying by, coupled with the anxiety of impending deadlines, has become a distinctive trait of our insane standards of hyperproductivity. The feeling of inescapability arising from the sense of insufficient time, which comes in overwhelming waves, seems to affect a large number of people. More generally, the perception of the flow of time is distorted by the dangerous combination of endless distractions and strict time constraints. Chaotic Timer by Reina Mun is a kinetic artwork conceived as a conceptual and procedural escape from these tense dimensions, based on the concept of countdown. This concept is increasingly associated with productivity through the above-mentioned deadlines. We experience it primarily through the time it takes software to complete a task (e.g. an upload or a download), or through any process that is expected to run immediately, but does not. The device Mun assembled consists of four oscillating modules connected to an interface through which personal stress levels can be entered.Inside each module is a magnetic ball. By swinging the modules, the ball becomes a pendulum that is in periodic motion. Even when it almost threatens to fall down, it does not. This symbolises the dualism between the pressure we are under and the commitment we have to important tasks. The modules start with random movements driven by Perlin noises and then slowly transition into a synchronised wave movement until the end of the timer. The final synchronisation seems to appeal to our inner need for balance, transforming the anxiety of the countdown into a predictable accomplishment, with no productive task involved, except the rhythmic adaptive ones. The initially chaotic dynamic finds its way to a symmetrical balance and achieves an aesthetic beauty that should be a main goal for our lives.

 

Reina Mun – Chaotic Timer