User:Max Dovey/Reading Writing Research Methodologies/realtime

REAL - TIME

A narrative technique whereby events are depicted as occurring entirely within the span of and at the same rate as the depiction

Real time is a method to mediate live experience and human interaction. A brief survey of its application in Film and television from creating narrative suspense to representing the unmediated real life experience. The illusion of real time is a form of representation that attempts to blur the boundary between art and life. Computational processing that is designed to respond in real-time to imitate the human temporal experience. The mediation of live events with digital streaming services allows audiences to share experiences in real time, What is the attraction of live experience and how is it simulated through the use of real time technologies.

Real-Time is a media object that attempts to mediate reality and mirror the temporal experience of the viewer. The device is of interest to me because it is a media device used to imitate the present and reflect the temporal framework of the viewer. Real-Time experience is a simulation of a live moment that is mediated by technology. In my performance practice I explore how instant feedback from computers can be contextualized with a live audience. My performance practice is mediated by technology and the audience experiences a live mediation of my actions. The interest in real time derives from the live aura and the technological simulation of the live aura.

Real Time can be traced back to the narrative structure of the Greek dramas (?)

Cinema
Real-Time as a media device can be traced to 20th Century cinema where continuous shots and unedited sequences let characters play out the story in a 'natural' time frame. Agnes Varda, a pioneer of the French New Wave, directed 'Cleo from 5 - 7' a film that follows a young woman for 2 hours of her life. Like many French New wave films it was filmed with portable cameras and on location but instead of applying Brechtian jump cuts Varda experiments with creating an objective realism. The real time device in this film dissolves the artifice of cinema by disguising the medium and replicates the same temporal framework as the viewer. Alfred Hitchcock released the crime thriller 'Rope' four years earlier (1958), which attempted to portray a dinner party in a single continuous long shot. The length of film at the time of production forced Hitchcock to hide the cuts every 10 minutes, noticeable by extreme close ups and fades to black. The use of real-time in this instance develops narrative tension as the whole film is shot in one room forcing an intimacy between the viewer and the subject.

Television
A successful television series titled '24' consisted of 24 hour-long episodes depicting the characters in a single day. Although initially skeptical that an hour depicted in 'Real-Time' would be too dull for modern audiences the format ran for 8 seasons and nearly 10 years. The Real-Time element made every episode 'a race against the clock' and a visual timer would heighten this dramatic tension. Producers insisted on characters completing mundane events like travelling during advertisement breaks so the 'Real-Time illusion was not broken, however a whole season of 24 consisted of 17 hours without the advertisements.

The Clock (Marclay, 2010)
A video installation consisting of thousands film scenes that reference a time edited in a sequence to portray a 24hr real time experience. ‘The Clock’ engineers cinema into a cyclical daily repetition transcending the original scenes into a composition reflective of the viewer’s temporal reality. The digitization of a format that once restricted filmmakers in creating real-time illusion now has expanded to allow 24-hour production and playback. The 'always on' temporal nature of digital computing relates to how audiences can experience a fluidity of media that imitates their physical time space.

"Real-Time" does not always mean occurring immediately. Rather, "Real-Time" can be understood as information which is produced and made available in a relatively short and relevant period of time, and information which is made available within a timeframe that allows action to be taken in response i.e. creating a feedback loop"

Data
Computational processes use a configuration called 'real-time simulation' to complete tasks in relation to the physical time it would take. This imitation of time is often applied in computer gaming when human characters are slowed down to appear more realistic. Computational processing occurs in a much faster time frame than human's perception of time, for example a 3.0ghz processor can add two integers in 330 picoseconds - thats 0.00000000001 seconds.

Computers are therefore slowed down to imitate the response time of human beings and physical objects. An example of real time simulation is in early computer chess, where the computer calculates its move within microseconds, to make game longer and more pleasurable for the user it slows down its response time. Deliberate delays are created in computing between the event and the automated data processing for the interface to give the illusion of 'real time'. The Illusion of 'Real-Time' was broken every 10 minutes when Alfred Hitchcock would have to cut the reel of his tape, now the technology out paces our sense of time forcing us to create deliberate delays on computational responses. Another example is the latency of telecommunication, which is kept at 200 milliseconds for mouth-to-ear delay to simulate direct physical communication. It’s a long way from Hitchcock being constrained by the physical length of the film tape to the intentional delays of computational systems to create the illusion of real 'physical' time.

"Does it ever stop? Does it slow down? Of course not, why should it? It’s fantastic. The idea is time. Living in the future. Look at those numbers running. ' 'Money makes time. It used to be the other way round, clock time accelerated the rise of capitalism. People stopped thinking about eternity and began to concentrate on hours, measurable hours, man-hours, using labor more efficiently. It's cyber-capital that creates the future. "

What is the measurement called for a nanosecond? 10 to the - 9th power This is what? 1 billionth of a second I understand none of it, but it tells me how rigorous we need to be in order to adequate measure of the world around us. There are zapto-seconds Good I'm glad Octo-seconds 1 zeptillionth of a second Because Time is a corporate asset now it belongs to the free-market system. The present is harder to find it. It is being sucked out of the world to make way for the future of uncontrolled markets and huge investment potential. The future becomes insistent and this is why something will happen soon. Maybe today. To correct the acceleration of time and bring nature back to normal more or less. "

Cosmopolis, (Cronenberg, 2012)

Mechanical Time
Each second passing is what constitutes a Real-Time experience. Within each second flows the moments between the minutes, the hours and the days. Up until 1960 a second was defined by the earths rotation around the sun, this calculation was unstable and not accurate for measuring each second so two scientists designed what is now known as The Atomic Clock. The Atomic clock is a mechanical clock that measures the frequency of a Caesium particle that is the most accurate measurement and has become the Universal Time Standard (UTC). It broadcasts the seconds in binary decimal time to radio frequencies that all digital clocks synchronies with. Society's Master clock changed from Ephemeris Time (based on the solar movements) to the frequency of an atomic particle. This is relevant when examining the illusion of 'Real-Time'; we have moved from the swinging pendulum that flows between states to the binary instances of mechanical time. This staccato time allows for infinite division for measuring of exponentially fast occurrences that are undetectable by human senses For example

3 milliseconds — a housefly's wing flap 3.3 milliseconds — normal delay time between initiation and detonation of a C4 explosive charge 134 milliseconds — time taken by light to travel around the Earth's equator 300 to 400 milliseconds — the time for the human eye to blink

Our experience of time is now dictated by a mechanical system, a counter that can divide the moments into micro fractions. 150 milliseconds (150/1000th of a second) is the recommended delay for telephone services and broadband Internet streaming provides latency between 5 - 80 milliseconds. These fractions of time are calculated by computers to create the illusion 'Real-Time'. If Moore’s law is accurate and computational processing continues to get faster will the illusion of Real-Time get better? The division of a second into measurable states has little relevance to how human's perceive time however the impact of keeping synchronized with a mechanical clock may have longer changes on what we understand 'Real-Time' to be.

1st Draft

Real-Time

A narrative technique whereby events are depicted as occurring entirely within the span of and at the same rate as the depiction. (wikipedia)

Real time is a method to mediate live experience and human interaction. A brief survey of its application in Film and television from creating narrative suspense to representing the unmediated real life experience. The illusion of real time is a form of representation that attempts to blur the boundary between art and life. Computational processing that is designed to respond in real-time to imitate the human temporal experience. The mediation of live events with digital streaming services allows audiences to share experiences in real time , What is the attraction of live experience and how is it simulated through the use of real time technologies.

[Steve: why does this subject interest you? Articulating this might help you write an introduction: what is at stake for you?]

Real-Time

a narrative technique whereby events are depicted as occurring entirely within the span of and at the same rate as the depiction

Real time is a method to mediate live experience and human interaction. A brief survey of its application in Film and television from creating narrative suspense to representing the unmediated real life experience. The illusion of real time is a form of representation that attempts to blur the boundary between art and life. Computational processing that is designed to respond in real-time to imitate the human temporal experience. The mediation of live events with digital streaming services allows audiences to share experiences in real time , What is the attraction of live experience and how is it simulated through the use of real time technologies.

Real-Time is a media object that attempts to mediate reality and mirror the temporal experience of the viewer. The device is of interest to me because it is used to mediate the present , a device that imitates live experience. My performance practice is mediated by technology and the audience experience a live mediation of my actions. The interest in real time derives from the live aura and the technological simulation of the live aura. Real Time can be traced back to the narrative structure of the greek dramas (?)

Film & Television
90 Minuten Aufenthalt (90 minute stopover) by Harry Piel (1936)

The blurring of art & life
cases of using real time to develop narrative tension but also can have the opposite effect. In Agnes Varda 'Cleo from 5 - 7' we join a young woman's life for two hours as she ambles along the parisian streets and meets with friends. The temporal composition reflects the slow pace of Cleo's life as she anxiously awaits the outcome of some medical tests. The real time device dissolves the artifice of cinema by creating the same temporal framework as the viewer whilst simultaneously constructing this 'real time experience' through editing.

Rope (Hitchcock, 1948)
The film takes place all in one room where (?,?) entertain guests whilst hiding the body of their murdered friend. Although Hitchcock wanted to depict the action in real time and continuously film the cameras at the time were unable to do so. Because of the length of 16mm cine film the camera occasionally zooms in for an extreme close up so that the film reel can be changed but the acting continues. This way the editing cuts are hidden to create the illusion of real time, however camera angles were synchronised to only change when the film run out of tape, so that the projectionist changes the tape the camera angle would cut deliberalty to a new angle. Is the reality of real-time heightened by this constraint of the medium , the projectionist normally having to match the two reels for a fluid changeover, this technique would allow for real gaps within the screening. This alienating effect within a representation of reality?

The Clock (Marclay, 2010)
A video installation consisting of thousands film scenes that reference a time edited in a sequence to portray a 24hr real time experience. The Clock engineers cinema into a cyclical daily repetition transcending the original scenes into a composition reflective of the viewers temporal reality. The digitization of a format that once restricted film makers in creating real-time illusion now has expanded to allow 24 hour production and playback. The 'always on' temporal nature of digital computing relays into how audiences want to experience media as a live event existing in a shared temporal experience.

Real-Time computing
computational processes use a configuration called 'real time simulation' to complete tasks in relation to the physical time it would take. This is most often used in computer gaming when representing human characters so that there movements are more representational. Computer processing could be slowed down on early home computers (commodore 64, apple ||) by implementing an inbuilt scheduler with varying deadlines of different priorities. An example of real time simulation would be computer chess where the move must be taken under a given time, forcing the computer to respond to deadlines set by a timer rather than its internal speed.

Nearing real-time
Deliberate delays are created in computing between the event and the automated data processing for the interface to give the illusion of 'real time'. Its a long way from Hitchcock being constrained by the physical length of the film tape to the intensional delays of computational systems to create the illusion of real 'physical' time.

"Real time means less than three seconds, so that anything giving news within five goes under the umbrella of historical information." - Reuter

Does it ever stop? does it slow down? of course not, why should it? it's fantastic. The idea is time. Living in the future. Look at those numbers running. Money makes time. It used to be the other way round, clock time accelerated the rise of capitalism. People stopped thinking about eternity and began to concentrate on hours , measurable hours, man hours, using labor more efficiently. It's cyber-capital that creates the future.

What is the measurement called for a nanosecond? 10 to the - 9th power This is what? 1 billionth of a second I understand none of it , but it tells me how rigorous we need to be in order to adequate measure of the world around us. There are zapto-seconds Good I'm glad Octo-seconds 1 zeptillionth of a second Because Time is a corporate asset now it belongs to the free-market system. The present is harder to find it. It is being sucked out of the world to make way for the future of uncontrolled markets and huge investment potential. The future becomes insistent and this is why something will happen soon. maybe today. To correct the acceleration of time and bring nature back to normal more or less.

Cosmopolis , (Cronenberg,2012)

Measuring Time
Each second passing is what constitutes a Real-Time experience.The second is the rhythm that constitutes the minutes, the hours and the days. Since 1000AD humanity has measured seconds in relation to the average day or the average year (the solar movements) known as Ephermeris time (ET).

From 1862 the standard unit for measuring a second was 1/86,400th of a mean solar day. A second was the lowest dominator of time and based upon the earth's solar orbit. The Earth's movement around the sun was never standardised and small discrepancies effected the measurement of a second. The Ephermeris method of keeping time varied in relation to the Earth's solar movement , grounding our temporal experience in relation to planetary astronomy. In 1957 two scientists accurately simulated a second with the frequency of a caesium particle and a second was redefined based on the fundamental properties of nature. From this point on time became a mechanical counter that could be systematically standardised for Co-ordinated Universal Time. The Atomic Clock broadcasts the time in radio frequencies and is used by television broadcast, Global positioning systems, and computational networks. Once time became a physical object that we have control of we could divide a second into micro seconds and nano seconds.

Our experience of time is now dictated by a mechanical system , a counter that can divide the moments into microfractions. 150 milliseconds (150/1000th of a second) is the recommended delay for telephone services and broadband internet streaming provides a latency between 5 - 80 milliseconds. These fractions of time that can only be calculated by computers create the illusion of a live experience. These microseconds that are untraceable by our senses have a huge effect on our experience of 'Real-Time'. According to Moores law technogical will get faster and response times will get quicker, but can the gaps between the moments be sufficiently simulated to a point where it cannot be deciphered between someone talking in the room and a someone on a video stream? Does the live moment contain an Aura that cannot be interpreted/ represented through technological simulation?

other Chronos and Karios Baudrillard - countdown to the year 2k . Stuart Brand - The long now. Bergsson - matter of memory Railway time standardisation. chron job art as life - Kapprow happenings Brechtian Theatre - real time as a representation of reality and not reality itself? 24hr end day in the life (Audio recording) boyhood - richard linklater.

Literature Ulysess - James Joyce http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_to_Felice a woman is a half formed thing - Eleanor Mcbride

Presentation - HTML Blink css animation. Javascript terminal Typeahead.js Live stream presentation with delay and cut up loading sequences into the video live type in browser with timestamp. post (mail) is real time? live processing of the word real time.

refs

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_(film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_computing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_Real_Time http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_database http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2014/05/live-video-streaming http://www.retail-week.com/technology/analysis-how-asos-is-unlocking-the-value-of-real-time-data/5057538.article