Adagio for Long Now

Another venture into the realm of video and motion graphics was this video. Based on, and meant as a trailer for, the Long Now Foundation‘s Clock project. The Long Now Foundation wants to promote very long term thinking for the betterment of humanity to the tune of 10,000 years. They also fund projects such as the clock through a small coffee shop called The Interval. This place holds a ‘Manual for Humanity’ as well as hosts talks about the impacts of immediacy and such with regards to survival. The Clock is also supposed to be very big, like hollow out the side of a mountain big. Even the time it tracks spans long periods; hour hand replaced by century hand and the like. A cuckoo comes out every millennium.

Design for the Long Now

What struck me most profoundly about the audacious idea of the clock entailed the long term design aspects. Highlighted in the video, the foundation and clock itself need to last 10 millennia. Aspects like Longevity, Maintainability, Scalability, Evolvability, and Transparency need to be present for something that’s going to last 10,000 years. Since discovering such aspects, I consider them fundamental generalities to design at large.

Production

I pulled heavily from the book on the subject, including quotes from founder Daniel Hillis and written by co-founder Stewart Brand. I also pulled what high-res images I could from the web. At the same time, I used Adagio for Tron by Daft Punk as well as their End of Line (both from Tron Legacy).

This was made at a time I didn’t have access to higher end video editing software, and like the La Jetée video, I store to use things like iMovie as dramatically and template-free as possible.

Visit the Long Now Foundation or The Interval

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