Blog #8
Video Project
The universal construct of day and night is hardwired into the human being. The daytime is for activity and the nighttime is for rest. Our bodies know this, and our clock reinstates it. But when the sun rises in Southern California, it is setting on the opposite end of the globe. What is day for one person, is night for another. This can be the case because of geography, but the internal clock can be misaligned with the rotation of the earth as well. I wanted to explore the complex relationship between our bodies and the construct of time. What role does the sun play in our desire to be awake? How does light influence our internal clock?
The short clip by Cell Press, entitled Social Jetlag and its Consequences, helped to answer some of these questions. It also provided some thought-provoking ideas. Is it difficult to separate the day from night from one another when we spend most of our time indoors? Do our bodies naturally start to wind down when the sun sets?
I didn't begin making this video with answers to any of these questions, rather I wanted it to show the complexity of the construct of time.
As mentioned in the audio clip, there are three clocks - the internal clock, the earth's clock, and the social clock. Ideally, these are all aligned with the rising and setting of the sun. But in reality, there are nights where we are fully awake and days when we want to sleep in until 2pm. These clocks become out of tune with one another.
This video blurs the lines of what is day and what is night - focusing on the social jetlag and misalignment of our clocks.