Modernity: Collapse of Space and Time
Time on the clock, time on the calendar, train timetable, velocity, movement of objects, all of these are going in accordance with the regular movement of the stars and the earth we live in. In modern society, we live in a complicated world with everything moving so fast. In “Modern Times” (1936), directed by Charles Chaplin, the first shot of the film shows a huge clock on which the second hand moves inexorably toward the top of the hour. This scene rather dramatically shows how people live under the mechanically measured idea of time. Today’s outcome of the collapse of space and time is inevitable in some way. The development of technology, transportation and media forces us to reconstruct and rethink the conception of NOW and PRESENT.
The meaning of NOW is getting shorter and shorter. We can easily find examples of this, in our daily lives. If we write to someone on physical paper it will take at least a week or even longer for them to receive it in the past. However, when we email it, they can get that mail as soon as we click the send button. Media-flow such as facebook, twitter show the status of NOW but only right after it became not NOW anymore by the comments that follow it. In addition, newspapers, magazines, and journals are publishing and cycling their next distribution more often from yearly to monthly to daily. Even though the earth keeps rotating at the same speed forever, people perceive time differently depending on the society, culture, and community they live in.