Time as a portrait or a landscape

Whether or not Benjamin Franklin actually made this timeline is unknown, but it is a useful perspective that is not used very much. The hours in the center leave spaces on both sides for things that might happen outside of quotidian tasks/goals. A simple switch from portrait/landscape thinking makes all the difference.

This works for music/sound as well: The "portrait" strategy is representational/through-composed, whereas landscape is ambient/abstract.

Geological time typically appears as vertically stacked layers. It is the vertical orientation that allows one to see the record of time, not the length of the horizontal striations. Landscapes infer distance over longer periods.(fernsicht vision)

Use of both orientations at the same time is interesting as well, as it places you (portrait) against longer durations (landscape).

Young Franklin



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