https://openprocessing.org/sketch/1475212
Triple is meant to be experienced first as a triple star system and second as a clock. The large, red star to the bottom left is a sun-like star that has entered it’s supergiant phase . Near the middle, a second sun-like star is earlier in its life and therefore still has its signature yellow color and smaller size. Finally, further away is the center of the triple system. A rapidly spinning blue giant that pulses as its magnetic poles intersect with the camera and then move away. The other, less bright circles are planets and moons trapped in the chaotic motion created by a three-body equation (as seen here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20518872-the-three-body-problem). Furthermore, a small asteroid belt is visible in the upper left. As a clock, each fast moving white dot is a tenth of a second, each time the small blue dot fills or the small pale blue dot completes its motion is one second, each time the larger blue dot fills, or the larger pale blue dot completes its motion is one minute, each time the yellow dot completely fills or the pale yellow dot completes its motion is one hour. Each time the orange dot fills or the dark orange dot completes its motion is one day, and each time the red circle completely fills is one year.
I feel like my work was successful in not immediately giving away the fact that it keeps to the human constructs of time units (hours, days, seconds, etc) and instead looking like it reflects a natural phenomenon. This begins a dialogue between the raw nature and physics that this piece denotes, both of which are completely independent of human constructs, and our quanta of time, something completely created and perpetuated by our shared belief in it. It is also successful in relatively clearly denoting time once one knows how to read it. It is however lacking in being able to read how much of a year has been completed as we cannot see the entire circle. I think that I could have also added more interesting motion such as actual orbits instead of just straight lines. Given more time, this is the direction that I would take this project in.
