The makings of an archive!

I have finally decided on a way to represent 'Age'...

Remember the matches that I used? The bursting of flames are celebratory for certain rites of passages. Whilst the flames represent life. But as the matchstick burns, so does life, and life becomes shorter.

Okay... The final archive that I have in mind is a clock. The clock has been around for a long time. It is the ideal instrument that will go forth into the future, as time is after all timeless (pardon the pun). And just to let you know how far back the instrument dates to (as quoted from Wikipedia),

The current sexagesimal system of time measurement dates to approximately 2000 BC, in Sumer.

Btw, sexagesimal refers to a numeral system with 60 as a base. 60 seconds, 60 minutes...
Using my clockface as a medium, I intend to design 100 matches to be laid on the face. The reason why I chose 100 is because 100 is a full, perfect and whole number. And also a number that people have aged until, although the lifespan for most human beings would be 75 or so.

Inside this clock houses a scroll that contains information about the many rites of passages that occur at any given age. There are approximately 25 different types of rites listed in the scroll, and they have been organized linearly according to the numerical age of human beings.

But, I'm still in progress of thinking better ways to represent age via time and rites of passages... And here are some pictures of the clock that I've already started on.

Map

A map exercise done in less than 20mins

A presentation

This video shows the first presentation of what 'age' meant to me.. and how I could use it as an archive featuring a form of rite of passage.

Interesting Find

Rites of passage article:
http://www.berkshirepublishing.com/assets_news/WHTG/articles/InitiationandRitesofPassage_18-Apr-2005.html

Exerpt

Structure of a rite of passage
Rites of passage are found in every known human society, past and present. Additionally, these rituals tend to share certain broad structural features in common. Thus, any rite of passage typically begins with a formal separation of the transitioning individual from the old state or status. The person then remains for some period of time in a marginal or transitional state divorced from both past and future statuses. Finally, in the incorporation phase of the rite, the transitioning individual enters into the new state or status.

Pioneer Plaque

In the previous entry, I mentioned about one particular president who sent something into space in hopes that alien lifeforms would receive it. Okay, so after an arduous search on the internet, I finally found what I was referring to.



The Pioneer Plaque are a pair of gold anodized aluminum plaques which were placed on two spacecrafts, the Pioneer 10 and the Pioneer 11 in 1972. The unique thing about these plaques were that it contained pictures of mankind (nude figures of a man and woman) and other symbols that provided information about the spacecraft and where it came from.



Another item that was sent into space on board the Voyager spacecraft in 1977 was the Voyager Golden Record that contained sound and images that showed human life and the cultures on Earth. It is a time capsule made for intelligent lifeforms to decipher, seen as a form of communication between Earthlings and extraterrestrials.

As said by U.S. President Jimmy Carter,

"This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours."

The interesting thing about this time capsule would the contents contained within it; 115 images and a variety of sounds including surf, wind, thunder, animal calls, even printed messages from Jimmy Carter. Images are coded in analog form, and spoken greetings in 55 languages are included in the record. This record is made of gold-plated copper and also contains a sample of uranium on the cover, considering that uranium has a half-life of 4.51 billion years, it is hoped that any lifeforms encountered in the far future would use it to find out the age of this record.

For more information, type any of the highlighted text into Wikipedia... As I got my information from that website.

Here are some of the 115 images that can be found in the record.

Since the beginning of time

In week 3's class, we were asked to think about how we would communicate with a person living in a thousand years from now.

In regards to the topic that we have chosen (mine being 'age'), how are we to pass down information through time, making sure that it would survive the natural erosion due to elements in the environment, or how can it be as unaltered as possible if it were to be passed down by person to person along the generations.

As I was thinking about it, I remembered the time when there was an experiment done in America where some president (I forgot which one) decided to code messages and send it out into space, hoping that an alien would pick it up and decipher the codes. Traversing through space and time requires solid materials that would last through heat and friction, and that could possibly be one of things that I would consider if I were to pass down my interpretation of 'age' a thousand years down the road.

Rites of Passage

Currently, I have been racking my brains for my upcoming assignment. How can I manifest AGE, while focusing on rites of passages as my main idea for passing age?

I thought of the significance of that, and I came down to important points in time. For each rite of passage that a person passes through, time stops for the moment to celebrate that event. Celebrations, cheers, joy, solemnity, meditation... are different reactions or emotions that are experienced at the event. But they're significant nonetheless, to the person who is going through the rite of passage and to the people around them.

Thinking how I could signify AGE, I thought of the trickling of time... Perhaps using similar ideas to the hourglass, or burning candles with trickling wax to indicate it. But I felt that it was too linear, too straightforward... In these ideas, time just flows and never stops, for that important event in life. As I racked my brains again, somehow I became stuck to the idea of the flame and fire. As it is in my rituals and celebrates, people light candles, and as the flicker of light comes alive the entire atmosphere changes, marking the importance of that very day, that very hour.

So I finally came up with an idea. Matchsticks!

Well, matchsticks are short, and I thought of linking each matchstick to the next so that I could set them ablaze. The wonderful thing about matchsticks would be the way it ignites. Each time friction or some form of catalyst hits the head, it suddenly just burns up, like a mini explosion. And these mini explosions could work in my project as I paralleled them to the important celebrations in life - rites of passages. And as each matchstick shrivels, there goes the passing of time too.

Here's an idea of what I intend to do. But I have yet to set them alight, considering how my home isn't fireproof. I wonder how I could actually show this in class since we've fire detectors and such... But anyway, here are the pictures!






Hoping to light it up!