April 09, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

As time goes by

by Terry Tang

Humanity has yet to find a way to stop time's inexorable march. From theoretical physics to photography, numerous scientists and artists have sought to dive into its inner mysteries.

Time is a concept that continues to fascinate and frustrate the human imagination, and two exhibitions at the Palo Alto Art Center through April 25 spotlight that eternal dichotomy.

Jim Campbell, a Silicon Valley engineer, is displaying a 23-piece show that mixes an array of media -- including video, computer technology and photos -- to challenge ideas about time, memory and motion. The second exhibit, "Narrating Time" contains images from historic and modern photographers who focused on similar ideas.

Art Center Curator Signe Mayfield felt this second retrospective, which includes photos dating back to the 1800s, would provide visitors a historical context, since Campbell's pieces often involve electronics. "Some people are hesitant to view this type of work. They don't realize that they've seen what brought us to his work before."

A fan of Campbell's art and installations since 1990, she admires how he manipulates high-tech media to humanize his work to a "low-tech" level.

"He likes to reduce information because it makes your eyes search," said Mayfield. "The viewer is forced to seek out meaning."

That challenge is issued the moment visitors enter the gallery. Campbell's first piece, "Digital Watch" (1991), initially throws viewers with the large projected image of a Timex pocket watch and the incessant ticking of its second hand. Another camera, digitally documenting visitors' actions, projects still snapshots of the viewers' movements. The effect is jarring as each image comes and goes in sync with the second hand's pulse.

The title then takes on another level of significance as visitors find they are participants as well as observers.

Time is measured a different way in "Untitled (for the Sun)" (1999). Erected above the entrance, this digital clock displays the percentage of daylight hours that have passed since sunrise. Starting at zero, the clock reaches 99.999 percent at sunset and starts over again.

Since days stretch longer in the summer, the clock's pace differs throughout the year. Despite incorporating some modern technology, this piece reminds the viewer how early civilizations gauged time.

Optic poetry also flourishes in "Motion and Rest," a series of six panels that -- at first glance -- look like Lite-Brites. For this piece, Campbell videotaped physically impaired people moving with crutches, canes, and other aids. He then transformed some of the footage into red LEDs on the panels. Raised by two parents with physical disabilities, he wanted to convey the emotion that comes with such conditions.

"I remember that I was really interested in the difference between information and meaning -- information in the mathematical sense meaning how many bits and pixels there are and meaning, in a poetic sense," Campbell said. "In this case, those small bits of information are expressed in pixels. That's the challenge I was working with."

The visually arresting figures take on deeper resonance given that social norms teach us not to gape at the disabled.

"This piece allows you to see an element of motion with an interesting cadence," Mayfield said. "It allows you to stare, but not in a way that's inappropriate."

For some of the LED displays, Campbell has mounted Plexiglas, which -- depending on the angle -- can either enhance or obscure a picture's clarity. In "Church on Fifth Ave.," (2001), New Yorkers' movements up and down a street are simultaneously shown in two different fashions. With a piece of Plexiglas tilted over 768 ruddy LEDs, the New Yorkers transform from pedestrian figures in a crosswalk into hazy shadows on film.

Another section is dedicated to Campbell's inventive technique of consolidating a video segment or an entire movie into one snapshot. Paying tribute to Italian Futurists -- artists who tried to represent motion in a single still image -- Campbell produced a series titled "Illuminated Averages" (2000-2001).

In "Illuminated Average #1, Hitchcock's Psycho," he makes the two-hour thriller haunting as one frame. Few details are visible as the shot's middle is flooded with light, except for a faint trace of the ill-fated heroine's face.

Mounted at the end of Campbell's exhibition is his intriguing "Memory Works" series. Once again, he uses electronics to highlight moments of clarity in the human consciousness. For "Sand" (1995), a glass panel containing sand that becomes visible every few seconds, the rhythm of visibility echoes the steps taken by Campbell's previous stroll along a beach. He was able to record his stride pattern by attaching a pressure sensor to his foot.

An apt ancestral component to Campbell's prolific interpretations can be found in "Narrating Time." Eadweard Muybridge, rooted in Palo Alto history for using photography to help Leland Stanford settle a bet about how horses moved, helped pioneer motion capture. The 1887 vintage prints on display come from Muybridge's "Animal Locomotion" collection. Among them are a series of shots documenting a white horse, Clinton, sauntering bareback and carrying a nude male rider.

The eight other photographers represented include Dr. Harold E. Edgerton, who developed the stroboscopic flash. Edgerton, who passed away in 1990, caught actions on camera that the naked eye never could, such as an automatic weapon firing and a Parlour Tumbler pigeon flipping in the air.

A quirkier take on time can be found in Mike Mandel's photo series, "Making Good Time." Mandel liked to use photographs to subvert the reasoning behind early scientific efficiency studies, according to Mayfield.

He utilized methods created by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, the husband-and-wife engineers who raised 12 children (the real-life family behind "Cheaper By the Dozen"). They studied time management by utilizing a form of 3-D photograph called "chronocyclegraph" (time and motion writing). In a dim "betterment room," workers were photographed laboring with small, blinking lights attached to their fingers. Blinking 20 times a second, the lights showed the paths of every physical movement.

All of Mandel's images use this technique for more commonplace occurrences. In "Emptying the Fridge" (1985), numerous jars and cartons are placed in the middle of a kitchen while an empty refrigerator door remains open. The lights, tracing each fridge-to-counter trip, leave luminous pink, blue, green and yellow trails like an entanglement of brightly colored silly string. The pseudo-light-show brings a comical twist by depicting this chore as real work. In "Disk Drive Assembly," (1985) Mandel paints the task of constructing a computer in the same absurdist light.

"I think a lot of Silicon Valley residents can relate to that one," Mayfield said.

What: "Jim Campbell," an exhibition of artworks and new media on time, memory and perception and "Narrating Time" exhibition of photographs from the 19th through 21st century. Where: Palo Alto Art Center, 1313 Newell Road in Palo Alto.
When: Through April 25. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday evening 7 to 9 p.m.; Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.
Cost: Admission is free.
Info: Call (650) 329-2366.

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