[Draft1]
Through copying and analysing motion-based works in After Effects, I began to reconsider my previous understanding of time in relation to making. In the past, I associated time primarily with labour: the longer I spent on a work, the more refined it could become. However, working with animation software shifted this perception. Time no longer functioned only as a measure of production, but as an active compositional structure within the work itself.
Compared to my previous understanding of two-dimensional composition, constructed through points, lines and planes, After Effects introduces time as an additional dimension through which spatial depth is produced, rather than modelled. A single change at one moment in time can transform the entire trajectory of the image. This raises critical questions: how can time operate as a material within composition rather than merely a duration of making? In what ways does temporal control reshape ideas of space and visual rhythm?
To explore these questions, I propose a studio-based experiment in which I animate the same set of graphic elements under different temporal conditions. By keeping spatial composition constant while altering timing, easing and sequencing, I aim to observe how time alone restructures narrative and spatial depth. This experiment will allow me to explore time as an active paintbrush, shaping the composition through duration rather than spatial arrangement.
[Draft2]
After an initial stage of experimentation with After Effects, I became interested in how keyframes govern the majority of actions within the software, and how the intervals I set between them perform much of the work. This led me to reconsider the relationship between time and visual form: Could it operate as a compositional material that translates directly into the artwork? In response to this question, I began to experiment with “hacking” the Timeline Panel, treating it not as a back-end control interface but as a primary site of composition.
However, through this process, it became clear that within After Effects’ operational logic, time itself cannot exist independently of spatial attributes. Keyframes can only regulate the speed or rhythm of transformation between predefined parameters; they cannot autonomously determine where an object moves from or to, nor what shape it becomes. This limitation clarified the role of time within the software: rather than replacing spatial composition, time functions as a relational compositional mechanism, responsible for organising the order, rhythm, and overlap of events.
Against this backdrop, I began to use the Conditional Design Manifesto as a methodological lens through which to analyse and advance my enquiry (Maurer et al., 2013). The manifesto emphasises conditions over outcomes, systems over singular forms, and process as something that can be repeatedly executed while producing difference. Rather than attempting to make time directly determine spatial placement, I instead designed a set of experimental conditions that allowed time to intervene in the organisation of graphic relationships.
By keeping the temporal structure consistent while allowing spatial parameters such as scale and position to vary, the same time-based conditions generated multiple visual outcomes. Spatial relationships adapted in response to a fixed temporal framework. In this system, time does not replace spatial composition, but operates as a structuring constraint that governs how spatial elements relate to one another.
By adopting Conditional Design as a methodological framework and working within the constraints of After Effects, the focus shifts from producing a fixed visual result to designing conditions that allow differences to emerge. Rather than resolving the question of time as a compositional material, this process positions graphic communication as something that can unfold, adapt, and remain contingent, existing not as a final image, but as a system negotiating the relationship between time, structure, and visual form.
Reference:
• Maurer, L., Puckey, J., Wouters, R. and Paulus, E. (2013) Conditional Design Manifesto. Amsterdam: Conditional Design.
[Draft3]
This reading is structured in layers, allowing the text to be accessed at different levels of depth. The full text presents the complete conceptual argument, while selected excerpts distil its core ideas into shorter versions for quicker engagement.
Reference:
• Kubler, G. (1962) The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things. New Haven: Yale University Press.
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