Shaking Our Foundations | AIGA CAA | 2006 | Accepted Abstract
Introduction to Temporal Contrasts: Continuity, Modulation, and Duration
This case-study presentation will explore temporal contrast as a set of necessary fundamental concepts in the study of contemporary Graphic Design. Continuity, modulation, and duration draw from histories of the performing arts, literature, and perceptions of passing time in daily life. The presentation will address approaches to dealing with a design environment where students are pulled into extreme complexity far too early by simply opening a piece of software. It will show and discuss the work of second-semester, sophomore, student graphic designers and their experiences in learning approaches to temporal contrast in print and screen-based media.
Prerequisites to the introduction of temporal contrast include the full range of spatial contrast—color, scale, weight, depth, two-dimensional composition—as well as, the fundamentals of photography—framing, depth of field, lighting, three-dimensional composition. A preferred corequesite is the introduction to multipage print and/or web design.
The study of temporal contrast does not presume motion, nor does it focus on motion as the primary objective. Sound may suggest motion or induce it in the listener, but notions of continuity, modulation, and duration reside without the visual manifestation of motion. This is also true in visual, time-based works in which cuts are made to a sequence of still images with set durations. From this perspective, students may better separate how to best exploit time and learn its nuances without the distraction of motion—however delightful and rewarding a distraction it may be.
This approach allows students to better work backwards to the individual frame and question a still photograph’s implied sense of time—its timelessness or the range of time which a reader may spend with a particular image before turning the page. In this way, duration is considered both as reader-defined duration or suggested duration and an author-defined or prescribed duration. Continuity and modulation form temporal structure in which students consider change—change in duration and spatial attributes between multiple, sequenced frames.
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Although these are the terms spoken to the student—this is not the delivery. Dissection is messy and in many ways counter to designing in time, designing within a virtual world of compound media that many label as a mere production tool, and designing at a time when what is needed most is meaningful synthesis of the whole wonderful mess. Covering as many bases simultaneously as possible, drawing as many metaphors and connections as possible, and delivering it so the students discovers the simple in the complex is always the goal.
Tying together concepts of time and space may come in the form of a ‘technical’ lecture and the advancements in compression codecs such as H.264. In this way, one may draw distinction and connection between interframe/temporal and intraframe/spatial compression of digital film. Issues of human-computer interaction are discussed while the students are learning to use their computers—frustration is turned into real-time assessment and first-hand object lesson. Mapping, diagramming, and working with a full range of intermediary graphic design artifacts are required as students organize complex structures/systems, plan, and draw connections between print and digital media. In this way and many others, students can begin to make sense of the growing complexity within the discipline while maintaining a depth of study that will make them viable in creative practice.
Mapping, diagramming, and working with a full range of intermediary graphic design artifacts are required as students organize complex structures/systems, plan, and draw connections between print and digital media.
