So, there's a program on at the moment about Einstein and his thought experiments. The analogy used to explain spacetime was to make a movie of an event, and then cut out each frame of film and stack them on top of eachother. Thus, space (or two dimensions thereof) is portayed in the horizontal plane, and time runs vertically.

If you saw such a stack of film frames (as was pointed out in the documentary), you would be seeing the whole film at once, and could look forward or backward in time by looking up and down the stack.

This is a nice analogy, and I've heard it before. But nobody, as far as I know, has ever actually done it.

So, the proposal is as follows. Take a movie (say, Casablanca), and print each frame on a large square of glass. Then set all these pieces of glass up like a line of dominoes, a few inches apart. (I'm doing it sideways, because otherwise the stack would be too high.)

And that, really, is that. I just think it would be cool to have Casablanca as a fixed installation that you could walk along.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 02 2017

How many glass frames in 2:29 ? https://www.youtube...watch?v=rEWaqUVac3M
Let's see, probably still 24 frames per second in those days, but two images of each frame, so .... [normzone, Aug 02 2017]

And you could just walk alongside, blinking rapidly to get the effect of being in (or at least next to) the movie.
-- zen_tom, Aug 02 2017


You indeed could.

Actually, I have an even better plan. Instead of glass plates, have a series of mist-curtains, with one static image projected on each one. Then you could actually walk through the movie, turn around, and rewind.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 02 2017


Intriguing [+].
-- 8th of 7, Aug 02 2017


I don't get it. [+]
-- doctorremulac3, Aug 02 2017


The aim is to embody time as a spatial dimension, simply by letting you see all the frames of a movie at once, or to walk back and forth through them.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 02 2017


Radar Doppler could determine how quickly and in which direction you were moving, and play the soundtrack accordingly.
-- bungston, Aug 02 2017


That would be quite cool. But you'd have to jog through the movie to hear the sound at anything like normal speed.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 02 2017


//The aim is to embody time as a spatial dimension, simply by letting you see all the frames of a movie at once, or to walk back and forth through them.//

I got the general idea, I was just being cute.
-- doctorremulac3, Aug 02 2017


Hmm, 24 frames per second, say 50mm between frames... = 4.32m/s, an easy walkng pace. More space would make each frame easier to see, at the expense of having to walk/run faster.
-- neutrinos_shadow, Aug 02 2017


Are you taking the Patisserie, [IT] ?

// walk back and forth through them. //

But how would you know whether you were going forward, or backward ? And if you were moving, or the frames were ?

Can we put the cat in the box now ? It's right here, waiting...
-- 8th of 7, Aug 02 2017


Here's looking at you, kid ....
-- normzone, Aug 02 2017


I suspect that much of the stack of will simply consist of 3/4 shots of people standing around looking pensive.
-- RayfordSteele, Aug 02 2017



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