Sarah Sze Software Tools
To gain an understanding of the ‘materiality’ of Flickr and how Timekeeper utilized the community-based photography platform, I created two software programs based on the artist-provided source code. These programs provided visuals for an otherwise abstract discussion with Guggenheim’s curators to identify Flickr’s conceptual and functional significance in Sarah Sze’s installation since its creation, and are instrumental visuals in future discussions about platform migration in the event that Flickr becomes obsolete.
Fig. 1 For the 2017 simulation of the New York Image Clock, images of protests—from the Women’s march— appeared amongst other images of a busy, bustling city.
Timekeeper Image Clock Simulator Tool
My research identified contemporaneity as one of Timekeeper’s significant properties. I observed empty city scenes, people in masks, and protests that were occurring outside my apartment during the summer of 2020. Analyzing the source code for each Image Clock showed that the software pulled 500 of the most recent Flickr photos from each of the 24 locations, refreshing hourly. The curators were curious about the content that the Image Clocks displayed in previous installations. I created the Timekeeper Image Clock Simulation tool by modifying a few lines from the artist-provided Image Clock source code to define the desired date and time, and location. For example, Timekeeper was exhibited in Copenhagen during spring 2017, so the date March 24th was chosen for simulation (see fig. 1). The image clock displayed the then-current time and date, as well as contemporaneous images of New York City.
Timekeeper Flickr Gallery Tool
The source code defined the behavior of the Image Clocks, which involved the appearance of a recent Flickr image for a few seconds followed by the location, time, and date for a few seconds. Unless one observed the Image Clock and committed each disappearing image to memory, it is impossible to see what the general content was for each location and date. By further modifying the artist-provided source code, I created a gallery view of the 500 images pulled at a given date and location. From this gallery, I was able to demonstrate that the content produced and tagged by the Flickr community is distinct from other image-hosting platforms such as SmugMug, Instagram, Imgur, etc. It is evident from the gallery that Flickr users are amateur to professional photographers uploading a “curation of images from the ultra mundane to the graphic masterpiece, the pornographic to the iconic and the out of focus to the nationally archived.” The Flickr community is less interested in sharing family moments, product advertisement, or curated self-image.