Theoretical Project

We are to create a theoretical project using the input and output devices that we have learned about so far which include LEDs, switches, and potentiometers. Last time in class I successfully created a color wheel using the potentiometer and a 3 pin RGB LED. As you turn the wheel, the resistance in the potentiometer changes and the color changes from red to yellow to green to blue-green to blue to purple and back to red. I though I would try to incorporate this exciting achievement into this project, but here is what I came up with:

I thought of creating an art piece that makes a statement on the modern commodity of time.
The idea is that there would be a self-generating art piece. For now I was thinking of this as a simple video of  a drawing or painting being created. The catch is that there is also a timer attached to this piece that counts down the time remaining, and the previously mentioned art piece never has time to finish itself. When the timer runs out, the canvas is swept blank and the piece has to start itself over (video stops short of a complete piece and repeats). No matter how long a viewer were to observe this piece, he or she would never know what the finished piece was supposed to look like. The viewer can interact with the piece by turning a dial (aka the potentiometer) to speed time up or slow time down and can even press a button to pause time all together. But these interactions are of no avail since as time speeds up, the drawing speeds up, but by relativity the art piece still only makes it to same stage of completeness as before. Similarly when time is paused, the art piece must also stop drawing. The timer is just an LED that blinks according to the speed of time set by the potentiometer dial. This LED changes from green through yellow to red as time runs out. The light is fully red when time is out and the piece must begin again.

Originally, I was trying to think of a piece that could instill a false sense of urgency in the viewer since I believe this often happens to people in life especially when involved in modern corporate America. We are all in a hurry, but what is that hurry really for other than burning away the time that we do have with stress and worry. Though related, this piece has really become a comment on my personality and the number of times that I start something that I don't finish. Too many interests, too little time. Yet for all our wishing to slow time down, we still could  not control our ability to finish something anyway.