Elements of 4D_Odin Burris
Element 1: Time
This article mainly talks about the different categories of time and how they differ. There are five of these categories: measured time, experienced time, running time, biological time, and digital time. Measured time references what most of us think about regarding time, showing the progression of it in a way we are used to. As the article says, Christian Marclay’s The Clock is a prime example of measured time, with its 24-hour runtime following a clock in real-time. Experienced time goes by a few different titles, such as subjective, implied, or pathological. These all refer to how we as humans perceive time throughout different emotional conditions, such as how we feel when “time flies when you’re having fun”. Running time is the amount of time for a specific film or event. Most films are shot and presented around the same length, but things like video games or music festivals vary in time according to how the participants interact with them. Additionally, something called plot time goes with running time, representing the time the story within the work spans. Biological time refers to how we perceive time through the condition of our bodies. Such things could look like hunger, exhaustion, restlessness, etc. Our age and slow deterioration of our bodies have to do with biological time. Lastly, digital time has to do with how time is kept track of in the technological sphere. According to the article, it is commonly measured in milliseconds and is used in timers and digital clocks. Some sporting events also use digital time to more-accurately log time on a finer scale. An example of time-based art is Arcane, an animated series on Netflix by the studio Fortiche and Riot Games. Its very existence involves running and measured time, being a series of episodes. The show exhibits plot time as well, with the story going through a series of time-skips and progression with its characters and events.
I, personally, adore this show. Its presentation of its story and characters is handled masterfully, and its themes revolving around time and change very much relate to this 4D element. Like any animated piece, time itself is what pushes the work forward.
2: Sound
This article, similar to the first, talks about what sound is, its characteristics, and the different kinds of sounds that they’ve categorized. The author includes synchronous sounds, nonsynchronous sounds, asynchronous sounds, diegetic, and non-diegetic sounds. They describe sound as “a vibration that can be perceived by the ear”. Sound has been a part of the human experience since practically the beginning of time, with it being a major part of our survival senses. In modern days, we as a society have experimented with and evolved how we manipulate sound. Soundboards, record players, cassettes, CDs, digital music, etc. are all new and different ways we have come to experience sound in the modern era. One of the sound types listed in the article is synchronous sounds. Synchronous sounds, essentially, boil down to being sound that is synched with whatever other media it is attached to. Dialogue, sound effects, and music all need to be paired with its shared footage to be the most impactful, so this is a very common type of sound. Asynchronous sound is the opposite. It is a sound that does not mesh perfectly with the video it goes with. Asynchronous sound can give people a sense of unease or frustration as our brain wants things to line up but to no avail. It can also be used to show different themes, and as the article uses as an example, a video of a child in detention paired with sounds of children playing and laughing could be jarring. Diegetic and non-diegetic sound is a little difficult to explain, but they essentially differ in being “actual” sound versus “commentary”. The two are also commonly referred to as “literal” and “non-literal” sounds. Diegetic sounds come from within the media, whilst non-diegetic sounds come from outside the media. Commentary over a movie, for example, a movie’s original audio is diegetic, whilst the overlying commentary is non-diegetic.
An example I would use for sound-based 4D art would have to be The Watson-Scott Test, a psychological horror game by Normal Wholesome Games. It’s a simple and short video game that seems to merely mock a personality test, but its use of 3D sound effects and unsettling visuals are what make it interesting. The slow-crawl sound of an uneven typewriter, pained groans, static, high strings, and breathing sounds all work to make this game as creepy as possible. Additionally, with the use of 3D sounds, there is a point or two in the game that makes a door-knocking sound–that sounds as if it’s coming from your room.
While the game itself isn’t groundbreaking, the sound design is very nice in my opinion. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes creepy sound design.
3: Movement
This article goes over and describes the various kinds of movement in art. There are two kinds of movement defined: successional and oppositional movement. Successional movement is defined as movement that “leads the eye in one direction”, while oppositional movement “leads the eye in different directions”. There is also the absence of movement: stillness. Stillness is just as important to 4D art as movement.
There are also different distinct parts of movement. These parts include attack, sustain, and decay. “Attack” refers to movement involving things like birth, growth, and onset, while “decay” refers to falling off, death, and termination. “Sustain” is the middle-ground of these parts, involving steadiness, duration, and life. When a movement is onset it also takes into consideration its base of support or the area beneath the object/person that connects to the surface underneath. Feet, hands, and inanimate legs are examples of support bases. The article talks about gestures as well. Also called isolations, gestures are “movements by a part of a whole, such as a single part of the body or a single part of a machine”.
The first thing I thought of as an example of movement was an animation done by one of my favorite online artists, who goes by ToastyGlow. Their animations are fluid and full of movement, and the specific example I have here is a short animation based off of the game Hades. Very fluid and cool.
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