(Archive) Time Pieces - Chronomaterials

Chronic Time Pressure

The advent of industrialisation and its demand for coordinated and calibrated living moved clocks to an omnipotent status and transformed our relationship with time profoundly. Clocks penetrated our personal spaces and started to dominate daily life. Time became the most valuable commodity, and ‘wasting’ time became the most sinful attitude. Advances in technology decreased the average time spent on many practices and conditioned us to do things in a shorter and shorter time. And the negative perception that we keep consuming, losing time every day, and we do not have enough time to accomplish every option available became the plague of our daily life. Chronic time pressure is a self-deceptive and illusory phenomenon caused by the growing number of choices, causing a ‘paradox of affluence’, in addition to the frantic tempo of daily life. Numerous studies demonstrate this chronic feeling of time pressure is worldwide and directly related to negative mood, anxiety, and depression. It obstructs to descry what matters to be committed in one’s life and influences the choices of the way one lives. Therefore, it is crucial to overcome this phenomenon to increase one’s quality of life.

Time Pieces, Chronomaterials

Nature illustrates the inherent power of time to accumulate and transform things into their most refined iterations as the embodiment of the concept of time. With this inspiration, in 2019, during Hazal Ertürkan’s MSc graduation, the notion of ‘Chronomaterials’ was conceptualised that refers to the materials ‘designed’ to collect traces of our personal experience of time by taking ‘the body’ as an interface between humans and practice. As in tree growth rings, which present detailed records of a tree’s growth and life story throughout its lifetime, the wearable Time Pieces collect and record the traces of one’s experiences and emotions by irreversibly changing its shape, texture and colour based on the changes in the environment (e.g., moisture, temperature) and your body (e.g., sweat, temperature). Since environmental changes provide valuable insights about your activities, while changes in your body serve as indicators of your emotions. The stored and accumulated traces of the activities and emotions on Time Pieces tangibly manifest one’s experiences, emotions and, ultimately, one's transformation.

The Function of Time Pieces, Chronomaterials

In addition to the embodiment of one’s change, the irreversible and momentarily changes of the Time Pieces also serve to elongate the experienced duration of time. Cognitive science and psychology fields discerned the perceived and remembered duration of time is subjective and different from the clock time. When the brain processes more new information (e.g., breaking daily routines and experiencing new things), time is experienced longer. The conducted user test showed that momentarily changes evoke curiosity to find the cause of the change and lead to paying attention to their emotions and environment. The temporal changes also encourage the user to experience new things and try new activities because of the interest in seeing the activity’s effects on the used Time Piece. The collected Time Pieces help us look back and recall our experiences and see how we experience various emotions every day. Even though we fall into mundane daily life, to realise the novelty of each day, week, and month is essential to break this self-deceptive phenomenon.