Cyclic to Linear: The Dynamics and Ideologies of Objects as Records of Time

In modernity, time is regarded as an entity projected always to an ideal future and constantly seeking for the new. However, traditional perspective of time is usually pictured as cyclic and repetitive in a sense. These different perspectives of time are both created and emphasized by the objects belonging to different genres as modern constructs.

The inscription of time by objects is critical while discussing the whole culture of production of the artificial. So, the discussion on the cultures of design and craft emphasized by different production techniques are significant for understanding the philosophy in which these technologies are flourished.

Objects are designated as craft or design objects not only because of their production techniques, but also of the physical or cultural signs that they carry with. No matter how the objects are created; -either by the techniques of craft production or just formed to carry the signs of craft or design only as an image-, these embedded signs are directly related with the perspective of time that they represent. The aim of this paper is to visualize these dynamics of time inscribed on objects from an analytical perspective.

The basic axis of the study is constructed on a very simple graphic representation visualizing the critical shift or deviation from cyclic time to modern projective time. By the help of this simple graphic and the conceptualization of this deviation, the possibility of visualizing and discussing terms such as nostalgia, postmodernity, personal and collective time etc., which are the main problematiques of the study becomes also possible.