On Time-Lapse

8/7/2019 On Time-Lapse

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OnTimeLapsePhotography

Oneof the foremost tasks o f a r t has a lways been the creat ion of a demand

which cou ld be fu l ly sa t i s f ied on ly la ter .

Walter Ben jamin , "The Work o f Art in the

Age of Mechan ica l Reproduct ion"

Acce lerated the l i fe o f f lowers i s Shakespearean .

B la ise Cendrars

I cont inued to look a t the f lowers , and in the i r l i v ing l ight I seemed to detect

the qua l i ta t ive equ iva lent o f breath ingbut o f a breath ing without return to

a s tar t ing po int , wi th no recurrent ebbs but on ly a repeated f low f rom

beauty to he ightened beauty , f romdeeper to ever deeper mean ing .

A lduous Hux ley , The Door s o f Per cep t ion

T rue imaginat ion actua l ly "sees" the "subt le" processes o f nature and the i r

ange l ic prototypes . I t i s the capab i l i ty to reproduce in onese l f the

cosmogen ic unfo ld ing , the permanent c reat ion of the wor ld . . . .

Maur ice An iane

Phusis, Poies is ,andthePreHistory of T imeLapse

Substance , N ietzsche argues in The GaySc ience , has not a lways ex i s ted . Once

mank ind l i ved in the midst of a substance less "abso lute f lowof becoming" : " In order

that the concept of substance cou ld or ig inatewhich i s ind i spensab le for log i c

a l though in the st r i c test sense noth ing rea l corresponds to i ti t was necessary that

for a long t imewed id not see nor perce ive the changes in th ings" (171) . Perhaps ,

N ietzsche specu la ted, weare not momentous enoughbe ings to perce ive change in i t s

purest form:

Weare not subt le enoughto perce ive that probably abso lute f lowof

becoming; the permanent ex i s ts on ly thanks to our coarse organs which

reduce and lead th ings to shared premises of vu lgar i ty , whereas noth ing

ex i s ts in th i s form. A t ree i s a newth ing a t every instant ; we a f f i rmthe form

because wedo not se i ze the subt lety of an abso lute moment . (Quoted in

Barthes 61)


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TheCollectedWorksofDavidLavery2

Ak ind of ep i stemolog ica l natura l se lec t ion , N ietzsche theor i zed , thus

governed the r i se of substancetheevo lut ion of a commonsens i ca l , mater ia l ,

s tab le , vu lgar wor ldandthe e l iminat ion of a perceptua l awareness of perpetua l

metamorphos i s .

The be ings that d id not see so prec i se ly had an advantage over those that saw

everyth ing " in f lux ." At bottom, every h igh degree of caut ion in mak ing

in ferences and every skept i ca l tendency const i tutes a great danger for l i fe . No

l i v ing be ings would have surv ived i f the oppos i te tendencytoa f f i rmra ther

than suspend judgment , to err and make up th ings ra ther than wa i t , to assent

ra ther than negate , to pass judgment ra ther than be justhadnot beenbred

to the po int where i t becameextraord inar i l y s t rong. (17172)

(Bergson meant much the samewhenhe argued, in Creat i ve Evo lut ion , that

"A man i s so muchmore a 'manof ac t ion ' as he can embrace in a g lance a greater

number of events : he whoperce ives success ive events one by one wi l l a l lowh imse l f

to be led by them; he whograsps themas a whole w i l l dominate them [32728] . )

But the humanmind has not a lways turned i t s back on becoming , desp i te the

adapt ive , evo lut ionary pressure to do so . Phus i s has had i t s 20th century

re incarnat ions .

I t was OwenBarf ie ld 's content ion, centra l to h i s whole understanding of " the

evo lut ion of consc iousness ," that Greek th ink ingindeedGreek consc iousness"was

in a certa in sense a l i ve" (Romant i c i sm 51 ) . Because the Greeks were more "at home .

. . i n the coming intobe ing , or becoming" than we, whose thought i s "bu i l t . . . on

the secure but r i g id f ramework of log i c . . . and can on ly dea l w i th the 'become, ' the

f in i shed product . . . , " the i r th ink ing reminds us today of "a b lossoming f lower that

i s s t i l l moi st , a l i ve , in movement , becoming." Herac l i tus w i tnessed the "un iversa l

f lux" ; we can on ly perce ive and th ink the " i s . " The turn ing po int , accord ing to

Bar f ie ld , camewhen"Anaxagoras set over aga inst the for everchang ing wor ld of

growing and decay ing substance . . . the other pr inc ip le of Onus or Mind" and

"ant i thes i s (h i therto unapprehended) betweenSp i r i t and Matter" becamecommon

sense , log i c t r iumphing over l ogos and judgment over just i ce .

St i l l immersed wi th in the exper ience of becoming , "consc ious in i t , " the

"Greek mind cou ld not a t f i r s t be consc ious of i t as such." Thus , Bar f ie ld a rgues ,


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those " laws" of nature which wenowconce ive abstrac t l y were to the Greeks "st i l l

apprehendedas l i v ing Be ings ." That aspect of nature percept ib le by the senses "was

i t se l f the sumof the accompl i shed deeds of another inv i s ib le partthat of the

'Forms' as wewi l l ca l l them. Indeedthe Greeks tendedto lose interest in the Nature

which had become. . . . " I t was natura naturans wh ich captured the i r imag inat ions ,

not natura naturata .

But we, in our s ta t i c thought , have madesuch evo lut ion in progress , such

becoming , into a mere theory . Wenowhave, Bar f ie ld ins i s ts (a l lud ing to the thought

of Bergson) , no exper ience of evo lut ion: "Now i t i s one of our four fundamenta l

' Lawsof Thought ' that a th ing cannot both be and not be , and so obv ious does th i s

appear to us that whenwehear Herac l i tus ma inta in ing the oppos i te , we are inc l ined

to s t i gmat i ze h imas a verba l qu ibb ler . Th i s i s because wecan on ly th ink ' i s ' ; we

cannot rea l l y th ink 'becomes ' except as a k ind of c inemat i c success ion of ' i s ' s ' . "

The very word "evo lut ion ," Bar f ie ld has observed, once had a very d i f ferent

meaning than the one in fused into i t by the 19th century mind as i t changedthe

meaning of the o lder word (which st i l l ca rr ied vest iges of the Greek awareness of

becoming) to denote the cosmos i t was then in the process of eng ineer ing , and th i s

change ref lec ts the modern loss of the exper ience of evo lut ion .1

For once the word

had suggested an "unfo ld ing , a gradua l and un interrupted process of change f rom

one form into another , towards which i t has tended f romthe startfromone form

into another througha whole ser ies of intermediate forms, the one impercept ib ly

merg ing into the other ." Once "evo lut ion" ca l led to mind t ransformat ion (onto

genes i s ) not mere subst i tut ion (a success ion of " i s ' s , " or phy logenes i s ) as i t d id for

Darwinatransformat ion in which cou ld be wi tnessed "a change f rompotent ia l form

into ac tua l and spat ia l form, the typ i ca l instance be ing a seed or an embryoevo lv ing

by growth into an independent p lant or an ima l ."

L ike Barf ie ld , Mart in He idegger foundthe preSocrat i c Greek mind a t tunedto the

emergence and estab l i shment of the " rea l " w i th a consc iousness qu i te d i f ferent f rom

our own. In character i s t i c He idegger fash ion, he i l l ust ra tes th i s d i f ference through

what might be ca l led phenomenolog i ca l e tymology (a methodwhich he shares w i th

h i s Br i t i sh contemporary ) . The Greek word for our "nature ," He idegger shows in h i s

1

SeeRaymondWilliamsdiscussionofevolutioninKeywords:AVocabularyofCultureandSociety(103

105).BarfielddiscussestheetymologyofevolutioninTheEvolutionComplex(8).


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Int roduct ion to Metaphys i cs , encapsu la tes th i s change of consc iousness which the

western mind has undergone.

For phus i s rea l l y meant to the Greeks , i f we t rans la te i t proper ly (avo id ing the

" logomorphic" impos i t ion of our ra t iona l mindset uponwhat was in rea l i ty a pre

ra t iona l l ogos ) , noth ing l i ke the g iven, known, "natura l " wor ld suggested by "nature"

(a La t inate word which , in typ i ca l l y Roman fash ion, becamerout in i zed , ob l i terat ing

the sense of wonder impl i c i t in the Greek equiva lent ) .2

Phus i s was , ra ther , noth ing

less than "se l f b lossoming emergence (e .g . the b lossoming of a rose) , opening up,

unfo ld ing , that which mani fests i t se l f in such unfo ld ing and preserves and endures in

i t " (Metaphys i cs 11 12 ; my i ta l i c s ) .A l l t ruthtothe preSocrat i c s ale the ia , the

unconcea ledwas, He idegger exp la ins , the resu l t o f the "gather ing in" ( the root

meaning of l ogos ) o f the f ru i ts o f th i s unfo ld ing in a process they knewas poies i s , o f

which techne was understood to be on ly a subset , a l esser ac t i v i ty . George Ste iner has exp la ined th i s d i f f i cu l t aspect of He idegger ' s ph i losophy of be ing wi th admirab le

c la r i ty .

Once, says He idegger , nature was phus i s , the a rcha ic des ignat ion of natura l

rea l i ty which he reads as conta in ing wi th in i t se l f the Greek sense for "coming

into rad iant be ing" (as i s s t i l l fa int l y d i scern ib le in our word "phenomenon") .

Phus i s p roc la imedthe sameprocess of c reat ion that generates a work of a r t .

I t was , in the best sense , poies i samak ing , a br ing ing forth . The b lossom

break ing f romthe budand unfo ld ing into i t s proper be ing (eneauto ) i s a t

once the rea l i za t ion of phus i s and poies i s , or organ ic dr i veDylan Thomas 's

"green fuse"andof the formal c reat i ve conservat i ve dynamismwe

exper ience in a r t . (137)

The Greek awareness of phus i s , i n which a t ree might be recogni zed in fac t as

"a newth ing a t every instant ," cou ld not long be endured, however . phus i s became

natura mere ly ; becoming becamebecome; what He idegger ca l l s the "ought" was

imposeduponthe wor ld of percept ion , and t ruth becamea lmost exc lus ive ly a matter

of correc tness , not reve la t ion (Mehta 138 , 14751) . And whether weaccept as

2

TheearlyGreekphilosophers(asAristotleexplainsintheMetaphysics[1005])wereevenknownasthe

phusikoithosewhoconcernedthemselveswiththeprocessesofgrowthandgenesis.SeeH.F.Peters,Greek

Philosophicalterms:AHistoricalLexicon (15860).


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exp lanat ion N ietzsche 's Darwin i st i c h i s tor i ca l ep i stemology , or Bar f ie ld ' s theory of

the evo lut ion of consc iousness , or He idegger ' s h i s tory of Be ing ,

Yet throughout the h i s tory of the West , i t seems, certa in ind iv idua l s , desp i te

the pressure to forget becoming and concentrate on the ob jec t i ve " i s , " have reta ined

an a tav i s t i c awareness of phus i s , have kept a l i ve an "openness to the mystery" even

in a t imewhich He idegger has character i zed as the "ob l i v ion of Be ing ." (A l l g reat

gen ius , N ietzsche had specu la ted, may a f ter a l l be a tav i s t i c .3

) For a d i s t inc t sub

spec ies of the race , such a consc iousness might even be ca l led "spec iesspec i f i c . "

A f ter a l l , a s Ste iner observes , phus i s and poies i s have a lways beenun i tedandthe

"b lossombreak ing f romthe budand unfo ld ing into i t s proper be ing" a lways an ever

present rea l i ty of percept ion and imag inat ionfor the a rt i s t . Art i s ts , be ing the

antennae of the race , have never forgotten the i r a l l eg iance to the "se l f b lossoming

emergence" of th ings ; a r t i s ts have kept a l i ve for the spec ies an authent i c awareness of becoming.

Evolut ion, Relat iv i ty , andtheMomentous

Andwould not the whole o f h is tory be conta ined in a very short t ime for a

consc iousness a t a h igher degree of tens ion than our own, wh ich would watch the

deve lopment o f humanity wh i le contract ing i t , so to speak, in to the great phases o f

i t s evo lut ion? In short , then , to perce ive cons is ts in condens ing enormous per iods o f

an in f in i te ly d i lu ted ex is tence in to a fewmore d i f ferent ia ted moments o f an

in tens ive l i fe , and in the summing up of a very long h is tory .

Hen r i Be rgson , Matter and Memory

Ordinar i l y , humanexper ience of events i s , l i ke that of every c reature , l imi ted by

what etholog i sts have deemedour "moment" : by , that i s , the innate b io log i ca l pace

a t which we, l i ke a l l c reatures , a re capable of perce iv ing the wor ld . S ince our

3

InTheGayScience (84),Nietzschewrites:

AkindofatavismIprefertounderstandtherarehumanbeingsofanageassuddenlyemerginglateghosts

ofpastculturesandtheirpowersasatavismsofapeopleanditsmore:thatwayonereallycanunderstand

alittleaboutthem.Nowtheyseemstrange,rare,extraordinary;andwhoeverfeelsthesepowersinhimself

mustnurse,defend,honor,andcultivatethemagainstanotherworldthatresiststhemuntilhebecomes

eitheragreathumanbeingoramadandeccentriconeorperishesearly.

Anotherhypothesisforthesourceoftimelapseconsciousnessinourtime:Jungsuggeststhatthecollective

unconscious,initsalmostinstinctualdepths,possessesalivingsenseoftherhythmofgrowth,flowering,and

decayaspartoftheaccumulatedpsychobiologicalwisdomofmankind.SeeBasicPostulatesofAnalytical

Psychology(paragraph673).


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spec ies ' moment i s approx imate ly 1/24th of a second, any event which in i t s

"presentat iona l immediacy" (Whi tehead) i s more rap id cannot be consc ious ly

detected by us .

A ser ies of taps admin i stered to the sk in a t a very rap id ra te of speedwi l l

thus be perce ived by us as one cont inuous tap . Or , to use a better knownexample , i f

mot ion p i c ture f i lm i s pro jec ted onto a sc reen a t a ra te of twenty four f rames a

second, each image remain ing on the sc reen for approx imate ly 1/24th of a second,

the image wi l l appear to the humanmind as cont inuous, thanks to "pers i s tence of

v i s ion ." Every mov ie i s , in rea l i ty , a very rap id s l ide show, but the innate l imi ts of

our moment keep us f romsee ing i t as such. Our inab i l i ty to see any faster than we

do "an imates" the ind iv idua l photographs and t ransforms them into a mov ing

p i c ture . S imi la r l y , extremely s loweventsfor example , the b lossoming of a f lower

are be lowour moment and l i kewise impercept ib le . Thus every c reature ' s moment

locks i t in to the wor ld a t a part i cu la r f requency , a l lowing exper ience of on ly a

l imi ted range of tempos, thoughwor lds uponwor ldsdimens ions which I w i l l ca l led ,

taken co l lec t i ve ly , the "momentous"cont inue to ex i s t beyond i t s ken.

Fasc inated wi th the nature of the phenomena l or se l f wor ld surrounding every

l i v ing c reature , inc lud ing humanbe ings , p ioneer Germanetholog i st Baron Jacob von

Uexku l l (18xx19xx) , author of such works as AStro l l Through the Gardenof Animals

andMen and Theoret i ca l B io logy , suggested that every sent ient be ing i s governedby

what he ca l led an "Umwel t . " A c reature ' s Umwel t , Uexku l l thought , i s a b io log i ca l l y

determinedadaptat ion to a part i cu la r env i ronment , the long termresu l t o f a l engthy

per iod of evo lut ionary deve lopment and the immediate e f fec t , in part , o f a

c reature ' s very metabol i sm, of i t s moment .

An Umwel t , Uexku l l imag ined, i s l i ke a soapbubble surrounding the ind iv idua l

be ing , f i l ter ing a l l that i t sees and fee l s , and yet i t i s a lmost imposs ib le to grasp and

to w i tness , so c lose does i t l i e to the intr ins i c , tac i t nature of the c reature , so much

does i t const i tute the substance of i t s accustomedor ientat ion .

As the sp ider sp ins i t s threads , every sub jec t sp ins h i s re la t ions to certa in

character i s t i c s of the th ings a roundh im, and weaves them in a f i rmweb

which carves h i s ex i s tence.

In He idegger ' s onto log i ca l terms, the Umwel t i s a "wor ld" which cannot be eas i l y

observed because i t i s that "wi th which" wesee , ra ther than "what" wesee . (Th i s


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t rad i t ion of thought has i t s or ig in , o f course , in Kant ' s concept ion of the "categor ies

of humanunderstanding , a t rad i t ion to which Uexku l l consc ious ly a t tempts to add a

b io log i ca l and semiot i c grounding . )

The Umwel ten o f somec reatures , Uexku l l in formsus , a re r i ch , whi le those of

others a re exceeding ly poor . For a ca tt le t i ck Uexku l l descr ibes , up to e ighteen years

may pass w i thout a s ing le accented sensat ion! (B le ibtreu 17) . But for every c reature

the s i tuat ion i s , in one sense , the same:

A l l psych ic processes , fee l ings , and thoughts a re invar iab ly boundto a

def in i te moment and proceedcontemporaneous ly w i th ob jec t i ve sensat ions . .

. . . T imeenve lops both the sub jec t i ve and ob jec t i ve wor lds in the sameway ,

and, un l i ke space , makes no d i s t inc t ion betweenthem. (Theoret i ca l B io logy

15 )

But humanbe ings , o f course , can escape the moment . Wea lone amongthe

spec ies on th i s p lant can cometo knowsometh ing of the "Momentous" i t se l f . What

other c reature showssuch concern , both sc ient i f i c and art i s t i c , w i th the inscapes of

other l i v ing c reatures? What other c reature can t ranscend i t s ownmoment to

invest igate the durat ion of the cosmos i t se l f? What other c reature cou ld rea l i ze the

Theory of Re la t i v i ty or propose the idea of the B ig Bang?

As the Dutchphenomenolog ica l psycholog ist J . H . van den Berg has shown, wehave

in the modern age neverthe less become increas ing ly ob l i v ious to the " tempo" of the

wor ld .4

Bu i ld ing on a Cartes ian , qua l i ty deny ing ph i losophica l foundat ion , committed

ideolog i ca l to the equa l i z ing of a l l d imens ions , ep i stemolog ica l as wel l as soc ia l ,

i nc reas ing ly obsessed wi th dominat ion , throughspeedand power , o f a l andscape for

which wehave l i t t le respect , conv inced that t ime i t se l f represents imperfec t ion , and

a ided might i l y the omnipresence of mechanica l c locks des igned to " restra in the

chang ing of th ings , to camouf lage th i s chang ing as muchas poss ib le" (113) , we

constructed f rom1740 through1900 an homogenized wor ld a lmost devoid of tempo.

"T imeex i s ts , " van den Berg observes , "on ly whenone takes the t ime"a

contemporary ra r i ty . Whenhe h imse l f " takes the t ime" in Things : Four Metable t i c

4

BytempovandenBergmeansthenatural,innaterealityofthingsinbiologicaltime,apartfromhumanly

iposedstructureandstability.


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Ref lect ions ,

5

he d i scovers that "each p lace has i t s ownt ime," i t s owntempo: c louds ,

t rees , p lants , the whole of the surrounding l andscape are f i l l ed wi th d i f ferent t imes:

In betweenthe f lowers a d i f ferent t imepreva i l s than on the l awn. T imes goes

a l i t t le faster there . Above me, among the feather c louds , t imegoes even

faster . . . . The sea has a d i f ferent t imethan the l and. A l ake in a forest i s a

rea lmof a d i f ferent t ime. Somet imes a s ing le t ree or bush can drawattent ion

because of the d i s t inc t i ve t imepreva i l ing a round i t . There a re f lowers which

d i sc lose newt imes a t certa in moments of the day . Whenthe thornapple

opens up in the even ing , a newand faster t imegoverns th i s f lower . And the

rea l reason i sn ' t that the f lower moves a t that t ime, but just the oppos i te .

Because a d i f ferent t imegoverns that f lower in the even ing , the f lower opens

qu ick ly in that part i cu la r way and inv i tes the hawkmoth, which i s endowedwi th fast t imeand f l i es prec i se ly in that part i cu la r way . For what i s speed i f i t

i sn ' t born by speedy , " t imeconsuming" th ings , p lants , or an ima l s?

Compared wi th the toad, the f rog i s fast , even when i t doesn ' t s t i r and, on the bas i s

o f i t s part i cu la r speed, the f rog leaps , whi le the toad c rawls by v i r tue of the t ime

that i s i t s own.

Humanbe ings , van den Berg reminds , a re l i kewise governedby the i r own, of ten

id iosyncrat i c , tempos: "Even people have a t imeof the i r own; each one, I suspect ,

has one for h imse l f . The botan i st i s marked by a d i f ferent t imethan the geolog i st .

The zoolog i st whospec ia l i zes in d iptera i s by v i r tue of h i s t ime, h i s tempoand

durat ion , a d i f ferent manthan h i s co l league whoprefers to l imi t h imse l f to bumble

bees" (123) .

A l l these tempos, van den Berg d i scovers , coex i s t , moments of the

Momentous , in a marve lous eco logy :

An ef fort less un i ty governs what I see , a un i ty in t ime, s t range as i t may

seem. For just nowwhen I observed for the f i r s t t imethat in d i f ferent p laces

t imes movea t a d i f ferent speed, I thought that I therefore ought to conc lude

5

Thingsiscomprisedofphenomenologicalreflectionsondimensions,colors,theshapeoftheearth,and

time.Metabletics,adisciplinewhichvandenBerghimselfinvented,isthestudyofhistoricalchange,considered

psychologically.


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that the p laces of such d i f ferent t imes cou ldn ' t poss ib ly remain synchronous.

Onep lace would l ag beh ind the others and be stuck w i th a surp lus of t imea t

the end of the day , whi le other p laces would run short . But I see my mistake: I

was foo led by the idea of an abso lute . Un i form, un i formly progress ing t ime

possess ing on ly one speed. I must abandonthat idea . (122)

That very idea , however , has foo led , and cont inues to foo l , most of us : "There i s

hard ly anybody whost i l l th inks that th ings change in rea l i ty" (114) .

Writ ing in the1920s, Paul Valry ins i sted that "wewhocannot even perce ive our

owngrowthare unable to v i sua l i ze a movement so s lowthat a percept ib le resu l t

spr ings f roman impercept ib le change." The humanmind, Va lry wrote , "can imag ine

the l i v ing process on ly by lend ing i t a rhythmwhich i s spec i f i ca l l y ours . . . " ( "Man

and the Sea She l l " xxx) .

Th ink ing of the rad ica l nature of modern knowledgein cosmology , geo logy ,

evo lut ionary b io logy , phys i c sTei lhard de Chard in observes in The Phenomenonof

Man that in th i s century our spec ies seemsto be acqu i r ing newsenses , the l a test

add i t ions to a "whole ser ies of ' senses ' . . . whose gradua l acqu i s i t ion . . . covers and

punctuates the whole h i s tory of the st rugg les of the mind." Oneof these newsenses

he descr ibes w i l l be one Va lry den ies us : a "sense of movement , capable of

perce iv ing the i r res i s t ib le deve lopments h idden in extremes lownessextreme

ag i ta t ion concea led beneath a ve i l o f immobi l i tytheent i re ly new ins inuat ing i t se l f

in to the heart of the monotonous repet i t ion of the sameth ings" (34) .

T ime lapse photography , as wesha l l see , may prove instrumenta l to the

perfec t ion of th i s sense , but the sense i t se l f i s not in essence instrumenta l but part

of humanpotent ia l inasmuchas werea l i ze ourse lves to be momentous , poet i c

be ings . I t would appear that ab i l i ty to see " the i r res i s t ib le deve lopments h idden in

extremes lowness" may have long beenwi th us .

"The sages ," sa id the Taoi st ph i losopher Chuangtzu , "contemplate ten

thousandyears and count themas a pure complete oneness" (Chang 73) . The f ina l

e f fec t of the acqu i s i t ion of an evo lut ionary sense , f romcosmology throughb io logy ,

might be to make men into such sages .

In WomanWarrior , in the chapter ent i t led "White T igers ,"Maxine Hong K ingston,

enthra l led by her mother ' s " ta lkstory" vers ions of anc ient Ch inese myths , imag ines


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herse l f as Fa MuLan, a fab led womanwhoapprent i ced herse l f to an e lder ly manand

woman in a mounta in sanctuary in order to becomea womanof power . As part of her

a rchetypa l t ra in ing as a warr ior , she learns f romher mentors the d i s t inc t l y Tao i st

apt i tude for see ing " the Dragon," a lways , in anc ient Tao i st lore , a f i gure for the

l i v ing Earth and i t s ways .

"Af ter I returned f rommysurv iva l test , " K ingston reca l l s , " the twoo ld people

t ra ined me in dragonways , which took another e ight years . . . .

You have to in fer the whole dragon f romthe parts you can see and touch,"

the o ld people would say . . . . dragons a re so immense, I would never see one

in i t s ent i rety . But I cou ld exp lore the mounta ins , which a re the top of i t s

head. "These mounta ins a re a l so l i ke the tops of other dragons ' heads ," the

o ld people would te l l me. Whenc l imbing the s lopes , I cou ld understand that I

was a bug r id ing on a dragon's foreheadas i t roamsthroughspace , i t s speed

so d i f ferent f rommyspeed that I fee l the dragonso l id and immobi le .

But she expands her moment to encompass that of the dragon.

In quarr ies I cou ld see i t s s t ra ta , the dragon's ve ins and musc les ; the

minera l s , i t s teeth and bone. I cou ld touch the stones the o ld womanwore

its bone marrow. I had worked the so i l , which i s i t s f l esh , and harvested the

p lants and c l imbedthe t rees , which a re i t s ha i rs . I cou ld l i s ten to i t s vo i ce in

the thunder and fee l i t s breath ing in the winds , see i t s breath ing in the

c louds . I t s tongue i s the l i ghtn ing . And the red that the l i ghtn ing g i ves to the

wor ld i s s t rong and luckyin b lood, poppies , roses , rub ies , the red feathers

of b i rds , the red carp , the cherry t ree , the peony , the l ine a longs ide the

turt le ' s eyes and the ma l la rd ' s . In the spr ing whenthe dragonawakes , I

watched i t s turn ings in the r i vers .

"The c losest I cameto see ing a dragonwhole ," K ingston notes in pass ing ,

"was whenthe o ld people cut away a sma l l s t r ip of bark on a p ine that was over

three thousandyears o ld . The res in underneath f lows in the swi r l ing shapes of

dragons."

So fa r advanced, in fac t , i s our current awareness of the " the ent i re ly new

ins inuat ing i t se l f in to the heart of the monotonous repet i t ion of the sameth ings ," so


11/57


c lose have wecometo contemplat ing nature and t imeas a "pure complete oneness ,"

that a t l east one contemporary phys i c i s t has a rgued that wecan no longer even be

certa in that " rocks , and even mounta in ranges , do not react as l i v ing organ i smswi th

a react ion t imeso s lowthat to ca tch i t w i th t ime lapse photography would requi re

mi l l enn ia betweenexposures . . . " (Zukav 4647) .

E inste in h imsel f , the fatherof such re lat iv i st i c th inking , was fasc inated wi th the

prospect of fered manby the potent ia l acqu i s i t ion of newsenses l i ke Te i lhard

descr ibed. In h i s conversat ion wi th A lexander Moszykowsk i he specu la ted about the

b io log i ca l impl i ca t ions of h i s owntheory of re la t i v i ty and the i r e f fec t on our

percept ion . S ince every c reature ' s interna l c lockits momentgives i t on ly a

re la t i ve , sub jec t i ve percept ion and or ientat ion toward the mul t ip l i c i ty of tempos in

the wor ld , a drast i c change in man's c lock , E inste in hypothes i zed, would presumably

a l ter our very measure of re la t i v i ty ; for as Moszykowsk i exp la ins (paraphras ing

E inste in) :

On ly whencompared wi th our ownmeasure of t imedoes an organ ic

ind iv idua l , say , a p lant , appear as someth ing permanent in s i ze and shape, a t

l east w i th in a short interva l . For wemay look a t i t a hundred t imes and more

in a minute , and yet not i ce no externa l change in i t . Now, i f we suppose the

pu l sebeat , the ra te of percept ion , the externa l course of l i fe , and the menta l

process of Man, very cons iderab ly acce lerated or retarded, the sta te of a f fa i rs

becomesgreat l y changed, and phenomena then occur which we, fet tered by

our phys io log i ca l s t ruc ture , should have to re jec t as be ing fantast i c and

supernatura l , a l thoughon the suppos i t ion of a newstruc ture they would be

qu i te log i ca l and necessary . (16364)

I f , for example , our pu l se beat were a thousandt imes faster , E inste in

pred ic ted , wewould be ab le to see a bu l let a t each po int of i t s f l i ght as eas i l y as we

nowfo l lowthe course of a butter f l y ' s movement . Or , i f our pu l se were inc reased by

a thousandt imes aga in , a f lower would appear as r i g id and immutable to us as the

earth ' s c rust nowseems; and the mot ions of an ima l s would be too s lowto be

wi tnessed and would have to be in ferred, as the mot ions of s ta rs a re now. At an even

greater acce lerat ion , E inste in specu la ted, l i ght would becomeaudib le .


12/57


But i f the humanmoment were , converse ly , s lowed1000 t imesi f we

acqui red a t ime lapse v i s ion of th ingsayear a t present would becomea th i rd of a

day : growth would spr ing up so rap id ly that i t would be scarce ly percept ib le ; the sun

would f l ash rap id ly ac ross the sky . Another s lowing by a thousandt imes would resu l t

in the tota l e l iminat ion of the d i f ference betweenday and n ight , and a l l changes of

formwould mel t in to a "wi ld s t reamof happening engul fed in i t s onward rush . ( " In

rea l i ty , " Henr i Bergson wr i tes in Matter andMemory , " there i s no one rhythmof

durat ion; i t i s poss ib le to imag ine many d i f ferent rhythmswhich , s lower or faster ,

measure the degree of tens ion or re laxat ion of d i f ferent k inds of consc iousness , and

thereby f i x the i r p laces in the sca le of be ing . . . " [xxx] . )

These breathtak ing f l i ghts of E inste in ' s imag inat ionare they not , in a sense ,

the very acce lerat ions and retardat ions of the humanmoment the " rea l " ex i s tence of

which he took to be mere ly hypothet i ca l , a " thought exper iment"? For i s not the

human imag inat ion the means by which manescapes , through the gate of the

imag inat ion , the b io log i ca l l y g i ven boundar ies of h i s ownmoment in order to exp lore

and to understand, and even to empath i ze w i th , a l l poss ib le momentsthose of

other c reatures , for example , and the rea lmof t ime in theabstrac t which conta ins

thema l l , what wemight ca l l " the momentous"thereby d i scover ing such momentous

newperspect i ves on the wor ld (newsenses , Te i lhard would ca l l them) as the theory

of re la t i v i ty , or the idea of evo lut ion?

In th is century , " the ageof E inste in" andof re lat ivi ty , i n a t ime in which van den

Berg detects " the mutab i l i ty of th ings aga in [ga in ing] the upperhand" (117) , when

"weeven hear of a d i scovery of t ime . . . he ld to be the essent ia l mark of modern

thought ," whent imehas even cometo be " recogni zed as the foundat ion of a l l

ex i s tence ," and " to renounce tempora l i ty i s not to renounce imperfec t ion but ra ther

to renounce t rue be ing" (Zuckenkandl xxxx) , a r t ' s fa i thfu l remembrance of

phus i s/poies i s has beena ided by the advent of a newart form: the mov ies , the a rt o f

the 20th century and an art seeming ly wel l su i ted to reminding us that th ings do

change in rea l i ty . The "pr i sonwor ld" of the known, Wal ter Benjamin wrote in "The

Work of Art in the Age of Mechanica l Reproduct ion" (1936) , was " lockedup." But

" then camethe f i lmand burst the pr i sonwor ld asunder by the dynami te of the tenth

of a second."

Anda long wi th the invent ion of th i s newtechnology of a r t i s t i c see ing came

the perfec t ion of a spec ia l i zed k ind of "dynami te ," a photographic techn ique which ,


13/57


i t might be sa id , seemedv i r tua l l y a modern re incarnat ion , a secondcoming , o f the

anc ient consc iousness of metamorphos i s : t ime lapse photography .

TimeLapsePhotography: History andPract ice

Whenwewere ch i ldren , and were taught natura l h is tory , we were to ld about bees

and howthey l ived . We looked a t the mot ion less images in our books but a l l o f that

was very d is tant for us , a land open on ly to the imaginat ion . With c inema, no more

unexp lored countr ies . No more barr iers between us and th ings! No more barr ier

between our sp i r i t and t ruth in i t s subt lety! Moreover , sc ient i f i ca l ly , c inemacasts

upon everyth ing i t records a c lear l ight wh ich ban ishes errors and d is tort ions .

The c inema is an eye wide open on l i fe , an eye more powerfu l than our own

and which sees th ings wecannot see .

Germaine Du lac

In "The Conquest of Ub iqu i ty" (1928) , a br ie f but suggest i ve essay on the response of

the a rts of th i s century to newtechnology , Pau l Va lry a rgued that the future wi l l

see successfu l , and h i therto unforeseen, newmarr iages of formand technique. "Our

f ine a rts were deve loped, the i r types and uses were estab l i shed," Va lry reminds , " in

t imes very d i f ferent f romthe present , by menwhose power of ac t ion uponth ings

was ins ign i f i cant in compar i son wi th ours . But the amaz ing growth of our techn ique,

the adaptab i l i ty and prec i s ion they have a t ta ined, the ideas and hab i ts they a re

c reat ing , make i t a certa inty that profoundchanges a re impending in the anc ient

c ra f t o f the beaut i fu l " (225 ; my i ta l i c s ) .

Keen ly aware of deve lopments in modern sc ienceEinste in ian re la t i v i ty , for

example , or quantumphys i csValry pred ic ted that man's burgeoning sc ient i f i c

knowledge and technolog i ca l commandwould , in a l ter ing the customary "sensor ium"

of the spec ies (Ong 1 16) , br ing about a k ind of aesthet i c future shock . " In a l l the

a rts there i s a phys i ca l component which cannot remain unaf fec ted by our modern

knowledge and power ," wr i tes Va lry (cont inu ing a century long medi ta t ion , begun in

earnest by the romant i cs , on sc ience 's impact on poetry ) .6 "For the l ast twenty years

6

Inacentralearlytextofthistradition,thePrefacetoLyricalBallads,Wordsworthhaddeclaredthefond

hopethatIfthelaboursofMenofscienceshouldevercreateanymaterialrevolution,directorindirect,inour

conditionsandintheimpressionswhichwehabituallyreceive,thePoetwillskeepthennomorethanatpresent;he

willbereadytofollowthestepsoftheManofscience,notonlyinthosegeneralindirecteffects,buthewillbeathis

side,carryingsensationintothemidstoftheobjectsofscienceitself.BythetimeofValry,thequestionhad

becomenotwhetherpoetrywillactivelyfollowscience,butratherinwhatwaypoetry(andallthearts)are


14/57


nei ther matter nor space nor t imehas beenwhat i t was f romt ime immemor ia l . We

must expect great innovat ions to t ransformthe ent i re technique of the a rts , thereby

a f fec t ing a rt i s t i c invent ion i t se l f and perhaps even br ing ing about an amaz ing change

in our very not ion of a r t . "

The subsequent h i s tory of the a rts in th i s century has certa in ly proven Va lry

correc t . The wel l documented impact of soundrecord ing on mus ic , or the in f luence

of c inemat i c narra t i ve on f i c t ion might be c i ted as prominent examples . And yet not

a l l the changes insp i red ( forced?) by newtechnique have brought about rad ica l l y

newnot ions of a r t . In a t l east one instancethespec ia l i zed photographic techn ique

knownas t ime lapse photographytheresu l t has been the a tav i s t i c re emergence of

seeming ly lost powers of humanconsc iousness and imag inat ion .

Time lapse photography i s a cinematic technique, s imi la r in pr inc ip le to an imat ion ,

in which the exposure of ind iv idua l f rames of f i lma t predetermined interva l s

resu l ts in a compressed v i sua l record of events occurr ing over long per iods of t ime

whenthese f rames are l a ter pro jec ted a t normal speed (Katz 1135) . Ord inar i l y , f i lm

i s pro jec ted on a sc reen a t the ra te of twenty four f rames per second: the samera te

a t which the photographs a re recorded. But a t ime lapse camera modi f ies th i s

tempoasF ie ld and Smi th , themselves t ime lapse p ioneers , exp la in .

Suppos ing , now, that wemodi fy our tak ing camera to photographone p i c ture

per second instead of twenty four ; i t i s obv ious that the whole of the

inc idents of a twenty four secondper iod wi l l be c rowdedon to a length of

f i lmwhich wi l l pass through the pro jec tor in a s ing le second. Wetherefore

have movement dep ic ted on the sc reen a t twenty four t imes i t s ac tua l ra te of

speed. I f we take one p i c ture per minute we inc rease the speed in proport ion ,

that i s to say to 1440 t imes.

(Whi le c l imbing p lantspeas , beans , etc .canbe captured throughacce lerat ion of

on ly one hundred t imes, most p lants requ i re muchmore; an average of one p i c ture

per hour i s common: a speedmagni f i ca t ion of 96 ,000 t imes [Smi th and F ie ld 137

38] . ) A secondexample : in order to showthe unfo ld ing of a rosearoughly twenty

hour processin t ime lapse , i t would be necessary to "sample" i t s progress by

transformed,almostagainsttheirwill,buttechnology.StephenKernsTheCultureofSpaceandTime18801918

presentsanexcellentoveerviewofthehistoricaldevelopmentofwhichValryspeaks.


15/57


expos ing one f rameevery f i f teen minutes . The n inety s i x f rames thus photographed

would take on ly about four seconds to pro jec t .

Accord ing to Herbert Z i t t l , t ime lapse as a photographic techn ique has severa l

d i s t inc t i ve aesthet i c features . T ime lapse has " re la t i ve ly few 'a t ' pos i t ions ." "Much

l i ke s t robe photography ," Z i t t l exp la ins , " f i lmphotography a l so seemsto va l idate h i s

theory . For f i lmphotography invo lves tak ing a great number of snapshots of a

mov ing ob jec t . Each of the snapshots , or f rames, shows the ob jec t a t rest , so that

whenyou ho ld and en large a s ing le f i lm f rame, you cannot te l l whether the ob jec t

was in mot ion whenthe p i c ture was taken or was s ta t ionary" (259) . Every f rameof a

f i lmeachshowing an ob jec t seeming ly a t restcaptures "an 'a t ' pos i t ion of the

t imecont inuum, a snapshot of part of the mot ion" (260) . As "a t a t" pos i t ions

inc rease in number , the faster the movement weperce ive as v iewers . The less

"pos i t ion change," the s lower the movement . Whi le in s lowmot ion the f ramedens i ty

i s qu i te h igh , in t ime lapse (and other formsof acce lerated mot ion) the f rame

dens i ty i s low" (Z i t t l 270) . Movement revea led by t ime lapse i s thus more erra t i c and

" jumpy." Objec ts shown in acce lerated mot ion, Z i t t l observes , "ob jec ts somet imes

seemto be se l f prope l led , shoot ing unpred ic tab ly through the lowdens i ty

a tmosphere that of fers l i t t l e , i f any , res i s tance to the i r movement" (271) .

Watch ing t ime lapse , the v iewer , fasc inated by the suddenconcreteness of an

inv i s ib i l i ty to which he has mi racu lous ly becomean eyewi tness , fee l s h i s own

th ink ing aesthet i ca l l y t ransformed into someth ing l i ke "a b lossoming f lower that i s

s t i l l moi st , a l i ve , in movement , becoming" (Ste iner xxx) . I t i s as i f , w i th the "uncanny

d i scovery of a new l i v ing wor ld in a sphere in which one had of course a lways

admi tted l i fe ex i s ted but had never beenab le to see . . . i n ac t ion" (Arnheim115) ,

the " impl i ca te order" of nature , in to whichasphys i c i s t Dav id Bohm informsusal l

ex i s t ing and potent ia l phenomena are in fo lded, were suddenly unfo ld ing before us ,

d i sp layed.7

In the imag ina l sc ience of Leo L ionni ' s de l i ght fu l Para l l e l Botany , we learn of a

type of p lant which "grow[s] in the rhythmof our sub jec t i ve t imeand eventua l l y

take[s ] the formof a long and intr i ca te conceptua l process ." Hav ing long ago lost

the i r ex i s tent ia l i ty , these p lants can nowbe perce ived, L ionn i exp la ins , on ly by " the

pr inc ip les and methods of phenomenology" (1314) . The reve la t ions of t ime lapse

7

Bohmhasarguedthattheworddisplayshould,infact,replacethewordimagineinourunderstanding

ofmentalfunctioning.SeeTedPeters,DavidBohm,Postmodernism,andtheDivineand,aswell,ReneWebers

interviewwithBohm,OfMatterandMeaning:TheSuperimplicateOrder.


16/57


photography are , o f course , qu i te rea l , technolog i ca l l y enhancedv i s ions of pa lpab le

rea l i t i es , and yet for the v iewer , a t l east , i t would be easy to be l ieve they share a

fami ly resemblance to the ch imeras L ionn i descr ibes .

History

F i rst env i s ioned theoret i ca l l y by phys i c i s t Ernst Mach in 1888 (Dar ius 18) , t ime lapse

was not implemented unt i l a decade la ter . In 1898 the f i r s t t ime lapse f i lm, a record

of the growth of beans over an e leven day per iod , te lescoped12 ,000 t imes so as to

l ast but a fewseconds, was c reated by the Germanbotan i st Wi lhe lmPfef fer . The new

technique was sooncoupled wi th the mic roscopeby the French c inemat i c innovator

Ju les Et ienne Marey in order to capture , by means of "photographic a l chemy," the

mot ion of b lood corpusc les .

In the 1890 's the B iographstud ios f i lmedthe demol i t ion of the o ld Star

Theater by expos ing a s ing le f rameof f i lmevery th i r ty minutes . In a mere th i r ty

seconds, the aud ience watchedamazedas the bu i ld ing d i s integrated before the i r

very eyes (Macgown16) . In 1904 , P i zon used a formof t ime lapse he deemed

"b iotachygrapy" to record the growth and deve lopment of a co lony of bacter ia

(Dar ius 18) .

By 1911 the genera l pub l i c was a l ready wi tness ing theatr i ca l presentat ions of

the "secret l i fe of p lants" by means of t ime lapse photography . The French wr i ter

Co lette has le f t a record ( in an essay ca l led "The C inema") of a 1920 Par i s ian

sc reen ing of such f i lms. In a memorable passage, she descr ibes her fasc inat ion wi th

s lowmot ion photography :

l a st Thursday a t the Musee Ga l l i era , there were twomoments whena l l the

young hands c lapped, whenthe mouths exha led and then immediate ly cut

short the i r "Ahs" of respect fu l ecstasy . In the f i r s t one, a "s lowmot ion" shot

rose f romthe ground, immobi l i zed i t se l f in the a i r , then he ld on a sea gu l l

suspended in the breeze . The undula t ion and the f lex ing of the wings , the

mechani smof gu id ing and d i rec t ion in the ta i l , the whole secret of f l i ght , the

whole s imple mystery of av ia t ion , revea led in an instant , dazz led everyone 's

eyes .

But i t was t ime lapse photography , shownon the sameprogram, which most

capt i vated her poet i c imag inat ion .


17/57


A b i t l a ter , a " fast mot ion" documentary documented the germinat ion of a

bean [Pfef fer ' s 1898 f i lmperhaps? ] . . . . At the reve la t ion of the intent iona l

and inte l l i gent movement of the p lant , I sawch i ldren get up , imi ta te the

extraord inary ascent of a p lant c l imbing in a sp i ra l , avo id ing an obstac le ,

g rop ing over i t s t re l l i s : " I t ' s look ing for someth ing! I t ' s look ing for

someth ing!" c r ied a l i t t le boy , profoundly a f fec ted. He dreamedof a p lant

that n ight , and so d id I . These spectac les a re never forgotten and g ive us the

th i rs t for further knowledge. (61)

So favorab le was the response of ear l y f i lmaudiences , in fac t , that in one recorded

instance a c rowd in Lewisham, Eng land ins i s ted that the f i lm"The B i r th of a F lower"

be rewoundand repro jec ted for the i r en joyment (F ie ld 139) .

In the f i r s t ha l f o f the century t ime lapse p ioneers l i ke the Br i t i sh natura l i s t

Percy Smi th and the Amer i can inventor John Ott cont inued to perfec t the new

technique. In a ser ies of f i lms madebefore the F i rs t Wor ld WarThe Wor ld Be fore

Your Eyesand in two la ter ser iesSecre ts of Nature and Secre ts of L i fe, Smi th and

h i s co l leagues deve loped"c ineb io logy" as a sc ient i f i c too l that a l lowedaudiences to

bear w i tness to prev ious ly inv i s ib le and yet ent i re ly natura l zoo log i ca l and botan ica l

events .

And Ott , whoas a teenager had re invented t ime lapse photography in order

to pursue h i s cur ios i ty about the exact moment whenthe buds on h i s fami ly ' s app le

t ree would open, further re f ined the technique for use in the prec i s ion study of

e f fec ts of d i f ferent wave lengths of l i ght on the process of photosynthes i s .8

In the

ear l y days of te lev i s ion , Ott even becamea "persona l i ty" regu lar l y appear ing ( in the

sameway that zookeepers do today) on such showsas "Today ," "The HomeShow,"

"Out on the Farm" to showh i s most recent t ime lapse f i lms, many of which had been

c reated on commiss ion as advert i sements . H i s t ime lapse f i lms of p lant growthone

of the most famous was of a pumpkin ' s gestat ionwere a spec ia l feature of D i sney ' s

Secre ts of L i fe ser ies . Ott ' s "showstopper" was usua l l y h i s f i lmof b lossoming

pr imroses , in which the f lowers appear to danceanef fec t c reated through the use

of spec ia l , synchron i zed l i ght ing and rotat ion of the p lants to emphas i ze the i r

natura l phototrop i smaf i lmthat l asts on ly twominutes but which took f i ve years to

8

ForanaccountofOttsachievements,seeThompkinsandBirdsTheSecretLifeofPlants(203205,207)

andhisownMyIvoryCellar.


18/57


complete (Ott 23 , 43 ) . In the 1970s , N .A .S .A . used Ott ' s f i lm in p lann ing hort i cu l ture

for the f i r s t space sta t ion .

Beg inn ing in the 1960s the "wizards of odd" a t Oxford Sc ient i f i c F i lmsa

pr ivate company foundedor ig ina l by un ivers i ty sc ient i s tshave cont inued to perfec t

t ime lapse technology to a degree a Pfef fer or Marey cou ld not have dreamed.9

In

the i r innovat i ve a t tempts to photographwhat co founder Sean Morr i s has ca l led

echoing the metaphor of Co lettethe" fa i ry ta le l and" of t ime lapse photography ,

they have expandedour 20th century consc iousness of the wor ld ' s tempos by

enabl ing us to perce ive , through the i r photographic "a l chemy," such events and

processes as (a part ia l l i s t mere ly ) :

a ) the unforgettab le dec imat ion of a mouse 's corpse , consumedwi th te lescoped, d i sgust ing ly v i v id rap id i ty by swarming b lowf l y maggots anevent of severa l days durat ion , captured in a f i lmwhich l asts l ess than a

minute ;

b ) the deve lopment of a b i rd embryo; c ) a year ' s movement in the Gr indewald G lac ier ; d ) ce l l d i v i s ion in a rabb i t egg ; e ) the swarming l i fe in a p i le of e lephant dung; f ) sanddo l la rs bedding themselves into the sea bottom; g ) the comings and go ing of sea c reatures l i ke l impets , which ord inar i l y

appear ent i re ly s ta t ionary ;

h ) the s lowprogress of a watch 's inner work ings ; i ) the expans ion of mic roscopic yeast ce l l s .

In a t ime lapse astronomica l photograph (48 exposures on a s ing le f rameof

f i lm) which wonsevera l ma jor awards and has beenreproducedwor ldwide over ten

mi l l ions t imes, Denni s de C i cco captured the f i gure e ightcommonly knownas an

"ana lemma"traced by the sun in the sky over the course of a s ing le year : February

1978 to February 1979 . (See Dar ius 17879 . )

And, us ing t ime lapse , photographer Ted Spagna has completed ten years

worth of "s leep portra i ts" : sc ient i f i ca l l y va luab le records of the s leep behav ior of

9

HereandthroughoutIhavedrawnonthetypescriptofa1980NovaepisodebroadcastonPBSentitled

MovingStill,adocumentaryhistoryofphotographictechniquesusedincapturingbehaviorandprocessestooslow

ortoofastforthehumaneyetoperceive.Unlessotherwisenoted,referencestothehistoryoftimelapse

photographyinthesepagesaredrawnfromthispamplet,publishedbyWGBH,Boston,MA.


19/57


menandwomenindiv idua l s , couples , parents w i th bab iesandzooan ima l s

gor i l l a s , f l amingos , bears . (H i s future p lans , he c la ims, inc lude portra i ts o f

sch i zophren ics , s leepwalkers , wha les , and astronauts . ) In the l a te 1980s , Spagna 's

work , exh ib i ted in ga l ler ies , even cameto a t t rac t the a t tent ion of the a rt wor ld as

wel l .

Contemplat ing ( in Pilgr imatTinker Creek) a 17th century thought exper iment in

which a mi rror shot into space , t rave l ing a t the speedof l i ght , would a l lowus to

"watch a l l o f the earth ' s prev ious h i s tory unfo ld ing as on a mov ie sc reen," Annie

D i l l a rd th inks of t ime lapse photography .

Those people whoshoot end less t ime lapse f i lms of unfur l ing roses and tu l ips

have the wrong idea . They should t ra in the i r cameras instead on the mel t ing

of pack i ce , the green f i l l i ng of ponds , the t ida l swing of the Severn Bore .

They f i lmthe g lac iers of Greenland, someof which c reak a long a t such a fast

c l ip that even the dogs bark a t them. They should f i lmthe invas ion of the

southernmost Canadian tundra by the northernmost spruce f i r forest , which i s

happening r i ght nowat the ra te of a mi le every ten years . Whenthe l ast i ce

sheet receded f romthe North Amer i can cont inent , the earth reboundedten

feet . Wouldn ' t that have beena s i ght to see? (145) .

T ime lapse prac t i t ioners have not yet completed a l l o f D i l l a rd ' s agenda , but they

have hard ly l imi ted themselves to roses and tu l ips . They have a l ready fu l f i l l ed

D i l l a rd ' s request for a g lac ier portra i t , and in the l ast year a lone, wehave beenab le

to watch a t ime lapse f i lmof the Earth ' s rotat ion shot f romspace.

Pract ice

Desp i te Wal ter Benjamin 's fond hope that in the a rt o f f i lma newun i ty of a r t and

sc ience might be eng ineered,10

t ime lapse photography has remained to date

10

Evidentlyadifferentnatureopensitselftothecamerathanopenstothenakedeye,Benjaminwrites.

offeringusanunconsciouslypenetratedspaceinsubstitutionforaspaceconsciouslyexploredbyman,the

moviesintroduceusbymeansofthecamerasloweringsandliftings,itsextensionsandaccelerations,its

enlargementsandreductionstounconsciousopticsasdoespsychoanalysistounconsciousimpulses(23637).

Timelapsevision,itwouldseem,isahiddenpowerofourownunconsciousoptics,apowerreleasedthrough

poeticimaginationandrecreatedbythetechniqueoftimelapsephotography.


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essent ia l l y a sc ient i f i c too l , putt ing in on ly an occas iona l appearance in f i lms for

theatr i ca l re lease . Jean Renoi r ' s The L i t t l e Match G i r l (1928) , w i th i t s t ime lapse

footage of f lowers in b loom, was one of the f i r s t to demonstrate (as Arnheimnoted

a t the t ime) " that such a dev i ce i s usab le for the a rt i s t" (116) . But the response was

hard ly overwhelming and t ime lapse was ra re ly used.

In h i s Le Tempesta i re (1947) , d i rec tor Epste in employed t ime lapse to show

c louds mov ing a t a mag ic ian ' s command.

The Swedish documentar i s t Arne Sucksdorf f (191719xx) , in The OpenRoad

(1948) , juxtaposed shots of gypsy dancers w i th t ime lapse c loseups of b looming

f lowers .

In h i s w ide ly pra i sed Farreb ique (1948) the French f i lmmaker Georges

Rouquier (190919xx)ad i sc ip le of the Amer i can p ioneer of c inemaver i te Robert

F lahertylyr i ca l l y portrayed the seasona l roundof a French fa rmfami ly , counter

po inted wi th images and scenes f romnature captured in mic rophotography , s low

mot ion, and espec ia l l y t ime lapse .

George Pa l ' s sc ience f i c t ion f i lmThe T ime Machine (1960) employed t ime

lapse as a spec ia l e f fec t in i t s dep ic t ion of a journey into the future . As the T ime

Trave ler l eaves h i s Londonhomeon the eve of the 20th Century on h i s way to the

year 802 ,701 , wewi tness the rap id passage of c louds overheadand the acce lerated

t ransformat ion of day into n ight among the s i gns of the progress of t ime.

Contemporary avantgarde f i lmmakers , not surpr i s ing ly , have somet imes

implemented t ime lapse techniques . Andy Warhol ' s Empi re (1964 , for example ,

te lescopes the pass ing of day into n ight in an e ight hour f i lmic record of the Empi re

Sta te Bu i ld ing shot f roma s ing le , s ta t ionary camera . (Accord ing to Gregory Battock ,

Warhol speededup the ac t ion a t th i s po int in h i s documentary , desp i te the f i lm's

overa l l commitment to d i s tort ing t imeby not d i s tort ing i t in expected ways , so that

" the major 'event ' in the f i lm" cou ld be "summar i l y d i sposed of in order to c lear the

way for the t imeless ' rea l ' t imeof the unchang ing image of the bu i ld ing ." [236] ) And

Michae l Snow's Wave length (1967) , a forty f i ve minute long excruc ia t ing ly gradua l

zoom journey ac ross a s tud io lo f t , ut i l i zes t ime lapse to revea l the passage of t ime in

a f i lmdes igned to demonstrate that "mot ion i s the on ly phenomenonthat a l lows

percept ion of t ime" (Youngblood122) .

Fred G . Su l l i van 's whimsica l , i ndependent ly producedautob iography , The

Beerdr inker ' s Guide to F i tness andF i lmmaking (1989) employs a t ime lapse camera

wi th humorous intent to capture twenty four hours"OneDay in the Magica l


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Years"of the d i rec tor ' s fami ly ' s hect i c l i fe , i t s f renet i c to ings and f ro ings , f roma

s ta t ionary pos i t ion ac ross the st reet f romthe i r Saranac Lake , NewYork "bunga low."

T ime lapse has even had a cameoro le to p lay in ma instreamHol l ywood fa re .

The opening c red i t sequence of Ona C lear Day YouCanSay Forever (1970) i s

compr i sed of s tunning t ime lapse shots of b lossoming f lowers created espec ia l l y

for the f i lmby noneother than the t ime lapse p ioneer John Ott . At the end of John

Badham's Saturday N ight Fever (1977) , a t ime lapse shot of c louds mov ing rap id ly

over the NewYork C i ty sky l ine i s used a t the mov ie ' s c lose to counterpoint Tony

Manero 's ( John Travo l ta ) dark n ight of the sou l a f ter the acc identa l death of h i s

f r iend. In Ph i l ip Kaufman's Invas ion of the BodySnatchers (1978) t ime lapse i s used

wi th menac ing e f fec taga in in the c red i t sequencetoshowspores f romouter

space gestat ing into paras i t i c f lowers essent ia l to the invaders ' p lot to conquer the

earth . And in Steven Sp ie lberg ' s E.T . , the top gross ing f i lm in the h i s tory of the

mov ies , a dead f lower i s brought back to v ibrant l i fe in t ime lapse by an extra

terrestr ia l ' s mag ica l powers . More recent ly , the c red i t sequence of Br ian De Palma 's

Bonf i re of the Vani t i e s (1990) used a Robert Greenberg des igned t ime lapse , morn ing

to n ight , panoramaof NewYork , w i th the Chrys ler bu i ld ing ' s famous gargoy les sc reen

center , as i t s c red i t sequence/estab l i sh ing shot .

TimeLapse in Koyaanisqatsi . Certa in ly t ime lapse ' s most prominent contemporary

f i lmro leat least "best support ing" i f not " lead ing"is in Koyaani sqats i (1983) . A

word less documentary f i lm, somet imes descr ibed as a c inemat i c tonepoem,

Koyaani sqats i i s the co l l aborat i ve c reat ion of Godfrey Regg io , a former Cathol i c

monk (once a member of the Chr i s t i an Brotherhood) , c inematographer RonFr i cke ,

and min ima l i s t composer Ph i l ip G lass . Or ig ina l l y Regg io ' s bra inch i ld , the f i lmwas

twenty years in the mak ing and f ina l l y sawthe l i ght of day on ly a f ter Franc i s Ford

Coppola lent i t h i s f inanc ia l support . S ince i t s re lease i t has gone on to a t ta in cu l t

s ta tus and Regg io has cont inuedwork on a t r i logy of documentar ies about the

modern wor ld .

The f i lm's t i t l e comes f romthe l anguage of the Hopi Ind ians of the Amer i can

Southwest , perhaps the most v i s ionary of a l l Nat i ve Amer i can t r ibes , whose anc ient

prophec ies foresawthe coming of the Uni ted Sta tes , the c reat ion of space sta t ions ,

and the eventua l death of whi te c i v i l i za t ion . As weare in formedat the mov ie ' s c lose ,

Koyaani sqats i means:


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1. c razy l i fe , 2 . l i fe in turmoi l , 3 . l i fe out of ba lance , 4 . l i fe d i s integrat ing , 5 . a

s ta te of l i fe that ca l l s for another way of l i v ing .

And the f i lm i s best understoodas an extendeddescr ipt ion of th i s insan i ty .

"Accord ing to one Hindu legend," The Romanian essay i s t E . M. C ioran has wr i t ten ,

"Sh iva , a t a part i cu la r moment , w i l l beg in to dance, a t f i r s t s lowly , then faster and

faster , and wi l l not s top before hav ing imposeduponthe wor ld a f renz ied cadence,

in every respect opposed to that of C reat ion ." "Th i s l egend," C ioran notes , " inc ludes

no commentary , h i s tory hav ing assumedthe task of i l l ust ra t ing i t s obv ious t ruth ."

Th i s dance i s Koyaani sqats i ' s sub jec t .

Koyaani sqats i has beenc r i t i c i zed as hypocr i t i ca l . The f i lm's "double van i ty , "

as one commentator puts i t , i s " that i t partakes of the very hyster ia i t decr ies ."

Another has compla ined that though" i t may invoke the sp i r i t o f Hopi be l ie f , . . . i t ' s

as mucha contemporary a r t i fac t as a v ideogame." Regg io has defendedh imse l f

aga inst the charge by ins i s t ing that he de l iberate ly chose to avo id the ug ly in h i s

dep ic t ion of our "c razy l i fe ." As Dav id Sterr i t t has noted, summar i z ing Regg io ' s

just i f i ca t ion , " In the B ib le and e l sewhere , . . . the message i s p la in : The most

dangerous tendenc ies in modern l i fe may seemto be the most seduct i ve ." The f i lm's

pr imary ob jec t i ve was thus to dep ic t " ' the beauty of the beast ' " ; to conv ince us that

"what wecons ider our c rowning jewel sour technolog ies and machinesmaybe the

very th ings that cause a l l our d i f f i cu l t ies ." The ob l i v ion of Be ing , a f ter a l l , i s i t se l f

terr ib ly seduct i ve .

In the " fasc inat ing images" of the opening sequence of Koyaani sqats i , the eye

of the camera opens on an Earth wi thout man. A l thoughas v iewers weare aware of

the a rt i f i ceconsc ious of the he l i copter in which the camera r ides , o f the use of

s lowmot ion and t ime lapse photography , and the spec ia l f i l tersst i l l the imagesof

c louds , caves , l i ght , f lowing water , s team, sand, and geolog i ca l wondershaunt us ,

we whohave conv inced ourse lves in the modern age that the wor ld would be devoid

of a l l qua l i ty i f i t were not for man's consc iousness , by the i r seeming l ack of a human

presence. They of fer us the opportun i ty to imag ine the Earth as i t might have been

before weemerged f rom i t , or a f ter wehave beenext inqu i shed, or departed.

I f , a s Lewis Thomas 's concept ion of the Earth as a s ing le ce l l and Love lock ' s

"Ga ia hypothes i s" suggest , the Earth i t se l f i s a k ind of g iant organ i sm, w i th i t s own

metabol i sm, resp i ra t ion , and a tmosphere , Koyaani sqats i ' s f i r s t sequence of fers us a

portra i t o f th i s be ing in a l l i t s wonders .


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Ageo log i c , not a human l ogos , governs th i s wor ld . Wesee a r i ver ( the

Co lorado) meander througha chasm( the GrandCanyon) which i t has i t se l f cut . We

exp lore a deepcave out of which b i rds and bats move a t random. Wewatch the sun

g l i s ten ac ross the waves of the ocean. Wewi tness c loud banks mount ing up in such

dens i ty and turbu lence that the very sky seemsan ungovernable ocean. Wepeer

downover a water fa l l a s i t p lummets to the depths be low. Weare present as n ight

and day in qu ick success ion moverap id lycaptured in t ime lapse photography

across the face of an immense c l i f f . Mesmer i zed, we look on as sand undula tes in

t imeless pattern ing . Andnoneof these comings and go ings , to ings and f ro ings the

"sens i t i ve chaos ," as Theodore Schwenk has descr ibed i tof the be ing ca l led Ga ia

needus in the least for the i r enactment ; none take p lace in a t imewewould

recogni ze as human. Th i s i s phus i s we watch , not nature .

But beg inn ing wi th images of exp los ions and then, in rap id montage, shots of

an earth mover , a long p ipe l ine , e lec tr i c l ines , a power s ta t ion , a huge dam, an

immense c rane, o i l r i gs , a tank fa rm, a mushroomc loud, and, f ina l l y , womenand

ch i ldren sunbath ing in the shadowof a nuc lear power p lant , Koyaani sqats i moves

abrupt ly into the rea lmof the storedaway . The remainder of the f i lmmemorably

portrays th i s new"sett ing to order" of th ings .

I f Koyaani sqats i ' s f i r s t sequence captures a wor ld w i thout man, the

remainderespec ia l l y a key centra l sequence knownon the G lass soundtrack as "The

Gr id"depic ts a wor ld f i l l ed to overf lowing wi th menand the i r th ings , a modern c i ty

wor ld . Exp lod ing bu i ld ings ; the South Bronx in decay ; immense g lass skysc rapers that

mi rror the sky above; bou levards , ma l l s , bowl ing a l leys overrun wi th humanbe ings ;

imposs ib le intersect ions , c r i ss c rossed by thousands and thousands of cars and

people choreographedby some inv i s ib le hand; inter lock ing f reeways which , shot

f romabove and in t ime lapse photography , appear to be somek ind of c i rcu la tory

systemfor the c i ty ; humanbe ings by the thousands c ross ing GrandCentra l S ta t ion

and enter ing and ex i t ing esca la tors w i th the determinat ion of ants , and hot dogs ,

automobi les , TVs , computers , jeans , and Twink ies in counter po inted, matchcut

mass product ion . The wor ld of Koyaani sqats i i s c lear l y one in which "a l l that i s so l id

mel ts into a i r . "

Near the end of Koyaani sqats i , a s a t rans i t ion to i t s l a st somber sequence, we

f ind ourse lves , a f ter a jumpcut , look ing downupona c i ty f romabove. Exper ienced

a i r t rave lers immediate ly recogni ze the image. In another cut , the camera moves to

an even h igher a l t i tude, and i t takes the v iewer but a moment to d i scern exact l y


24/57


what he or she i s see ing . The wor ld of urban sprawl , e ight l ane h ighways , g r id lock ,

and skysc rapers to which the ear l y scenes had so accustomedus becomes

momentar i l y d i sor ient ing , seen f romth i s h igh perspect i ve , but somerecogni zab le

formsare s t i l l apparent : h ighways , bod ies of water , parks , s tad ia . But then, in fa i r l y

rap id montage (a tota l o f over a dozen shots) , th i s extremeaer ia l long shot v iew i s

matchcut w i th extremec loseups of what appear to be computer c i rcu i t boards and

the intr i ca te weave of Hopi Ind ian b lankets .

Th i s montage br ings to a cu lminat ion a themethat has run throughout . For

muchof the f i lm, wehave lookeddownuponthe wor ld . In the ear l y natura l scenes ,

such a po int of v iewhad expandedour v i s ion of the immensi ty of the wor ld , o f i t s

geo log i ca l and meteoro log i ca l sweep. But in these aer ia l v iews of c i tyscapes , the

ef fec t i s to of fer us an Arch imedeanperspect i ve on humana f fa i rs , a perspect i ve

which , as Arendt foresaw, ac tua l l y be l i t t les humanach ievement . For as Arendt wr i tes

in "The Conquest of Space and the Sta ture of Man,"

I f we look down f romth i s po int [of E inste in ' s "observer f ree ly po i sed in

space"] a t what i s go ing on Earth and uponthe var ious ac t i v i t ies of men, that

i s , i f we apply the Arch imedeanpoint to ourse lves , then these ac t i v i t ies w i l l

i ndeedappear to ourse lves as no more than "overt behav ior , " which wecan

study wi th the samemethods weuse to s tudy the behav ior of ra ts .

"Seen f roma suf f i c ient d i s tance ," Arendt wr i tes , " the cars in which wet rave l and

which weknowwebu i l t ourse lves . . . l ook as though they were , as He i senberg once

put i t , ' a s inescapable a part of ourse lves as the sna i l ' s she l l i s to i t s occupant . ' "

Consequent ly , Arendt ins i s ts , " the overv iewef fec t" decreases humansta ture :

"A l l our pr ide in what wecan do . . . d i sappears into somek ind of mutat ion of the

humanrace; the whole of technology , seen f romth i s po int , in fac t no longer appears

as the resu l t o f a consc ious humanef fort to extendman's mater ia l power , but ra ther

as a l a rgesca le b io log i ca l process ." Fromsuch a perspect i ve , s imulat ion seems

inev i tab le , seemsa lmost to be God's w i l l . ( Fromsuch a perspect i ve , i t i s poss ib le for

FreemanDyson to ha l luc inate today ' s pure ly technolog i ca l spacecra f t t ransformed,

l ess than three decades hence, into a l i v ing c reature ab le to exp lore the cosmos. " I t

i s reasonable to th ink of the mic rospacecra f t o f the year 2010 ," Dyson c la ims in h i s

G i f ford Lec tures [ In f in i te in A l l D i rect ions] , "not as a s t ruc ture of meta l and g lass and

s i l i con, but as a l i v ing c reature , fed on Earth l i ke a ca terp i l l a r , l aunched into space


25/57


l i ke a chrysa l i s , r id ing a l aser beam into orb i t , and metamorphos ing in space l i ke a

butter f l y ." )

Muchof Koyaani sqats i i s shot f romthe Arch imedeanpoint . As wewatch the

t ransformat ion of r i vers into p ipe l ines , sheer c l i f f s in to skysc rapers , r i ver canyons

into the va l ley boulevards betweenNewYork ' s mammothbu i ld ings , superh ighways

into the c i rcu la tory systemof the mega lopol i s , and Ind ian b lankets becomec i t ies ,

becomec i rcu i t boards , we recogni ze that weare w i tness to an quantum

metamorphos i s in the concept ion of humandest iny enacted by the adopt ion of an

Arch imedeanperspect i ve .

But in the end the f i lmdoes not sanct ion the Archmideanperspect i ve . I t s

c los ing shot i s o f a miss i l e l aunch, the samemiss i l e wehad wi tnessed dur ing the

f i lm's t i t l e sequence as i t s lowly l i f ted of f f rom i ts pad. As i t soars skyward, i t

exp lodes in mida i r , and for over twominutes wewatch a l a rge p iece of i t s hu l l fa l l

s lowly , s lowly back to Earth before the f ina l c red i ts remind us of the Hopi prophecy

of Whi te c i v i l i za t ion 's inev i tab le co l l apse .

Time lapse photography was the product of what i n te l lec tua l h i s tor ian StephenKern

has ca l led " the cu l ture of space and t ime." "Fromaround1880 to the outbreak of

Wor ld War I , " Kern shows,

a ser ies of sweeping changes in technology and cu l ture c reated d i s t inc t i ve

newmodes of th ink ing about and exper ienc ing t imeand space . Technolog i ca l

innovat ions inc lud ing the te lephone, w i re less te legraph, x ray , c inema,

b i cyc le , automobi le , and a i rp lane estab l i shed the mater ia l foundat ion for

reor ientat ion; independent cu l tura l deve lopments such as the st reamof

consc iousness nove l , psychoana lys i s , Cub i sm, and theory of re la t i v i ty shaped

consc iousness d i rec t l y . The resu l t was a t ransformat ion of the d imens ions of

l i fe and thought . (2 )

As a pr imeagent of the "cu l ture of space and t ime," mot ion p i c tures , Kern observes ,

" th i ckenedthe present ." "Any moment cou ld be pr ied openand expandeda t w i l l ,

g i v ing the aud ience seeming ly a t once a v i s ion of the mot ives for an ac t ions , i t s

appearance f romany number of perspect i ves , and a mul t i tude of responses . A man i s

shot in an instant , but mov iegoers sawthe event pro longedand ana lyzed l i ke a

deta i led case h i s tory . The present was thus th i ckenedby d i rec tors whosp l i ced t ime


26/57


as they cut the i r f i lm" (88) . T ime lapse photography th i ckenedbecoming , made i t

v i s ib le .

TheTheoryof T imeLapse

The c inema is an eye wide open on l i fe , an eye more powerfu l than our ownand

which sees th ings wecannot see .

Germaine Du lac

The c inema is substant ia l ly and natura l ly poet ic . . . . i t i s d reaml ike , because i t i s

c lose to dreams, because a c inemasequence and a sequence of memory or o f a

dreamandnot on ly that but th ings in themselves a re profound ly poet ic : a t ree

photographed i s poet ic , a human face photographed i s poet ic because phys ic i ty i s

poet ic in i t se l f , because i t i s an appar i t ion , because i t i s fu l l o f mystery , because i t i s

fu l l o f ambigu i ty , because i t i s fu l l o f po lyva lent mean ing , because even a t ree i s a

s ign o f a l ingu is t ic sys tem. But who ta lks through a t ree? God, or rea l i ty i t se l f .

Therefore the t ree as a s ign puts us in communicat ion with a myster ious speaker .

Therefore , the c inemaby d i rect ly reproduc ing ob jects phys ica l ly . . . i s substant ia l ly

poet ic . Th is i s one aspect o f the prob lem, le t ' s say preh is tor ic , a lmost pre

c inematograph ic .

P ier Pao lo Paso l in i

Theoret i c ians , h i s tor ians , and scholars of the f i lmhave usua l l y notedbut on ly

notedthe intr i gu ing nature of t ime lapse photography . Had not Benjamin sta ted

that "To demonstrate the ident i ty of the a rt i s t i c and sc ient i f i c use of photography

which heretofore were separated wi l l be one of the revo lut ionary funct ions of the

f i lm"? (236) . For the fewwhocontemplated i t s meaning a t a l l , t ime lapse seemedto

promise just such a fus ion of the " twocu l tures ."

Conv inced that " the modi f i ca t ions of spat ia l and tempora l exper ience

prov ided by s low, acce lerated, or reverse mot ion wi l l prov ide f resh access to the

t rue , concea led nature of the phenomena l wor ld" (Miche l son x l i i i ) , Jean Epste in

(18971953) , French p ioneer of the avantgarde, pra i sed t ime lapse as one means of

preserv ing the medium's ear l y , phenomena l sense of wonder aga inst the stu l t i fy ing

deve lopment of narra t i ve c inema. But a techn ique l i ke t ime lapse was for h imas wel l

the too l for sc ient i f i c reve la t ion . "The rev i s ions of percept ion and judgment impel led

by that access" Epste in was conv inced, "would conf i rmsc ient i f i c d i scovery and

red i rec t ep i stemolog ica l inqu i ry" (Miche l son x l i i i ) . Desp i te " i t s s ta rt l ing phys i cs and


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st range mechanics , " t ime lapse , Epste in hastenedto remind, should be understood

as "but a portra i tseen in a certa in perspect i veof the wor ld in which we l i ve"

(quoted by Kracauer 53) .

Wr i t ing in 1925 , Bauhaus des igner Lasz lo Moholy Nagy , whi le pra i s ing

c inema's apt i tude for sc ient i f i c research into the metamorphos i s of "zoolog i ca l ,

botan ica l and minera l form" and condemning i t s l azy ut i l i za t ion for dramat i c

purposes , spoke most e loquent ly of t ime lapse as a wonderfu l veh ic le for the

reve la t ion of charac ter . Imag in ing a t ime lapse f i lmof "a manda i l y f romb i r th to h i s

death in o ld age ," he descr ibes the probable e f fec ts of such a f i lm:

I t would be most unnerv ing even to be ab le to watch on ly h i s face wi th the s lowly

chang ing express ion of a long l i fe and h i s growing beard , etc . , a l l i n f i ve minutes ; or

the sta tesman, the mus ic ian , the poet in conversat ion and in ac t ion; . . . Even wi th a

proper understanding of the mater ia l , speedand breath of thought do not suf f i ce to

pred ic t a l l the obv ious potent ia l i t i es . (36 )

In her essay on "V i sua l and Ant i V i sua l F i lms," Germaine Dulac (18821942)

contemplat ing the ab i l i ty of f i lmto "decompose" movement , thought of t ime lapse

as a qu intessent ia l example .

A gra in of wheat sprouts ; i t i s synthet i ca l l y , aga in , that we judge i t s growth.

C inema, by decomposing movement , makes us see , ana ly t i ca l l y , the beauty of

the leap in a ser ies of minor rhythmswhich accompl i sh the major rhythm,

and, i f we look a t the sprout ing gra in , thanks to f i lm, wewi l l no longer have

on ly the synthes i s of the moment of growth, but the psychology of th i s

movement . We fee l , v i sua l l y , the pa infu l e f fort a s ta lk expends in coming out

of the groundand b looming. The c inemamakes us spectators of i t s bursts

toward l i ght and a i r , by captur ing i t s unconsc ious , inst inc t i ve and mechanica l

movements . (32 )

And in "The Essence of the C inema: The V i sua l Idea ," Du lac aga in returned to t ime

lapse in a cons iderat ion of the "educat iona l and instruc t i ve power" of f i lmas a "sort

of mic roscope" :

In a documentary , in a sc ient i f i c f i lm, l i fe appears before us in i t s in f in i te

deta i l , i t s evo lut ion , a l l that the eye i s normal l y unable to fo l low.


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Amongothers , there i s a s lowmot ion study of the b looming of

f lowers . F lowers , whose stage of l i fe appear to us bruta l and def ined, b i r th ,

b looming , death , and whose in f in i tes ima l deve lopment , whose movements

equ iva lent to suf fer ing and joy a re unknownto us , appear before us in c inema

in the fu l lness of the i r ex i s tence

Benjamin , in h i s "A Br ie f H i story of Photography" (1931) , noted that i t i s "a

d i f ferent nature which speaks to the camera than speaks to the eye: so d i f ferent that

in p lace of a space consc ious ly woventogether by a manon the spot there enters a

space he ld together unconsc ious ly ." Weknow, or th ink weknowhowpeople wa lk ,

but our commonsense knowledge, Benjamin ins i s ts , i s a lways inexact , for "weknow

noth ing def in i te of the pos i t ions invo lved in the f rac t ion of a secondwhenthe step i s

taken." Photography , however , o f fers us a newknowledge. Through i t s "methods

[ t ime lapses , en la rgements , e tc . ] one f i r s t l earns of [ the] opt i ca l unconsc ious , just as

one learns of the dr i ves of the unconsc ious throughpsychoana lys i s ." The camera ,

Benjamin suggests , i s in fac t "more c lose ly re la ted" to concerns w i th s t ruc ture , to

the formsof ce l l s , to mic roscopic reve la t ions than i t s to " the moody landscape or the

sou l fu l portra i t" (202) .

Rudol f Arnhe im(xxxxxxxx) , in h i s semina l s tudy The F i lmas Ar t (1933) ,

prov ided a def in i t i ve phenomenology of the v iewer ' s exper ience of a t ime lapse f i lm

(wi th I . G . Farben 's Mirac le of F lowers ( xxxx)a f i lmhe judged to be "certa in ly the

most fantast i c , thr i l l i ng , and beaut i fu l ever made"ash i s test case) :

The sway ing rhythmic breath ing mot ions of the leaves , the exc i ted dance of

the leaves a roundthe b lossom, the a lmost vo luptuous abandonwi th which

the f lower opensthep lants a l l a t once comea l i ve and showthat they use

express ive gestures l i ke those to which weare accustomed in menand

an ima l s . Watch ing a c l imbing p lant anx ious ly grop ing , uncerta in ly seek ing a

ho ld , as i t s tendr i l s tw ine arounda t re l l i s , or a fad ing cac tus b loombowing i t s

head and co l l aps ing a lmost w i th a s i gh , was an uncanny d i scovery of a new

l i v ing wor ld in a sphere in which one had of course a lways admi tted l i fe

ex i s ted but had never beenab le to see i t in ac t ion . P lants were suddenly and

v i s ib ly enro l led in the ranks of l i v ing be ings . One sawthat the samepr inc ip les

app l ied to everyth ing , the samecode of behav ior , the samed i f f i cu l t ies , the

samedes i res . (115)


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Remark ing on the ab i l i ty of the c inemato "extend . . . certa in of our means of

percept ion and . . . throwout br idges beyondthe impassab le zones of our senses and

our sk i l l s , " the great modern i st a rch i tec t Le Corbus ier s ing les out sc ient i f i c

documentary ' s "mi racu lous f i lms on the growth of seeds and p lants" as proof that

"nature and humanconsc iousness a re . . . twotermsof the [same] equat ion" (112

13) .

In h i s Theory of F i lm: GrowthandCharacter of a NewArt (1952) , the

Hungar ian c ineaste Be la Ba lazs noted that whi le "on ly p i c tures of nature wi thout

menbear the conv inc ing s tampof unquest ionable , authent i c rea l i ty , " such f i lms

"of ten appear fantast i c ." And"noth ing cou ld be more l i ke fa i ry ta les , " wr i tes Ba lazs ,

w i th t ime lapse photography in mind, than " the sc ient i f i c f i lms which showthe

growth of c rysta l s or the wars of in fusor ia l i v ing in a drop of water ." He even goes on

to br ie f l y deve lop a theoret i ca l exp lanat ion of the uncanny nature of such

c inematography .

the fa r ther away the ex i s tence presented . . . i s f romthe poss ib i l i ty of human

inter ference, the less i t the poss ib i l i ty of i t s be ing a rt i f i c i a l , faked, s tage

managed. . . . For a l thoughwhat wesee i s a natura l phenomenon, the fac t

that wecan see i t a t a l l s t r i kes us as unnatura l . . . . In watch ing such th ings

we fee l as i f we had entered a terr i tory c losed to man (17273)

Whena technique l i ke t ime lapse photography showsus "someth ing that human

be ings cannot see in normal c i rcumstances ," Ba lazs conc ludes , suggest i ve ly , " then, as

weneverthe less see i t , we have the fee l ing of be ing inv i s ib le ourse lves . . . . "

S iegf r ied Kracauer , in h i s Theory of F i lm (1960) , l i kewise pra i ses the technique

as contr ibut ing to what he sawas the pro jec t of f i lm: " the redempt ion of phys i ca l

rea l i ty ." "P i c tures of s ta lks p ierc ing the so i l i n the process of growing up openup

imag inary a reas" for the humanmind, K racauer a rgues , and he inc ludes t ime lapse as

a c inemat i c approach which " lead[s ] s t ra ight into ' rea l i ty of another d imens ion '" (52

53) .

And Stephensonand Debr i x , in The Ar t o f the C inema (1965) , note that t ime

lapse photography seemsespec ia l l y wel l su i ted to th i s age of E inste in , for i t

"demonstrates in the most forcefu l way the re la t i v i ty of t ime" : "a speededup

documentary on p lant growth may introduce us to a un iverse whose ra te of


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movement i s f i f ty thousandt imes faster than the one weknow, a tempora l un iver

Documents

On Time-Lapse