I was fascinated by the perception of the present moment, or Now. If we were placed in a room with nothing to tell the passing of time — no clock, no sunlight, no hunger — how would we know that time has passed? My response to this is that we only know that time has passed when our present Now is different from our past Now, and it’s the rate of change of our Now that indicates how we experience that time passing.
However, we perceive things differently, and our perception of the passing of Now is unique to our own lived experiences. A 95 year old has a very different perspective on time compared to a 5 year old. Time spent peeling potatoes feels different to time spent watching an engrossing movie.
The resulting piece, “Where are you Now?” measures and represents the rate of change of our present moment through the pitch of a string. A higher pitch (i.e higher frequency) indicates a faster perception of the rate of change of the present moment while a lower pitch indicates a slower perception. Users interact with the piece by moving the pegs at the end of the strings and adjusting the pitch to match their personal perception of time. Thus, the pitches of each string captures the cumulative Now for every person who interacts with the piece, producing a sound that highlights the differences and connection between our collective experiences.
At times the pitches of the two strings will be the same, both capturing the same frequency of time passing. At other times, the pitches of the two strings will be discordant, highlighting the differences in our experience of the present.
In its full operational capacity where the pitches of both strings can be clearly heard, there will be a faint beating effect that feels like a slight increase and decrease in volume of the strings. This is how the two strings are connected, through a phenomenon called beat frequency. Each string may move independently, but they affect each other, connecting through the sound waves in the space they occupy.
This piece was designed for all users interested in how we perceive the passage of time differently. The aim is to build and foster empathy and understanding for our different Nows despite existing in the same present moment. While we may move together, our rate of change of Nows are unique, and our intersection in the present moment does not mean that we are experiencing the same Now. Through this piece, the hope is to propose the possibility that the intersections of our Nows can be both inevitable and impossible.
Where are you now? Where is everyone who has come before you now? Where is Now? As this clock runs – days, months and years after you have adjusted its pegs, perhaps long after you’ve forgotten about this clock – where will you be while this clock continues to capture what your Now was in this moment?
