Timescape: A Speculative Neural Hacking Kit

“The speculative product is intended to provoke a conversation around the conflict between time as we experience it, and the construct of linearity that ‘clock time’ imposes.”

Timescape is a speculative neural hacking kit that aims to deconstruct the notion of linearity in perceived time. It consists of injectable proteins that temporarily alter the brain's neural plasticity, which changes various perceptions of time—including sequence, direction, change, and duration. Second-year student Karan Bansal created Timescape as part of his MFA thesis—an exploration into time poverty, colonialist origins of timekeeping, and ways to augment time that restore choice. 

Timescape is intended as a bio-hack that users can obtain at the nearest pharmacy. Karan says the speculative product is intended to "provoke a conversation around the conflict between time as we experience it and the construct of linearity that ‘clock time’ imposes. It challenges the status quo of time that is external and independent to time that is subjective and experiential."

The Timescape kit consists of four shots, each of which is responsible for changing a specific perception. Each syringe consists of a protein formulation that modulates the synaptic stimuli responsible for mechanisms responsible for creating the respective construct in the brain. Let’s take a look at the four different types here:

The Past shot extrapolates the experience of directionality in time. This protein formulation contains the enzyme HDAC2 that inhibits memory formation by condensing genes required to form new memories. This distorts the tensed memory attenuators, resulting in the recall of recently experienced things being perceived as long back. Higher dosages may lead to no relation of experience with linked events, leading to the perception of the past without the brain's time or imagination. The experience is similar to Deja Vu and some dreams.

The Order shot extrapolates the perception of the sequence created by the brain. This protein modulates the motor control synaptic mechanisms. It increases the usual delay of 100 ms in feedback between the brain's sensory and motor control mechanism to 1s. This creates a lag in perceived experiences, similar to the one of watching a poorly dubbed movie. The spatial-temporal distortion experienced after this shot is similar to the experience of Alzheimer's patients.

The Change shot extrapolates the experience of pace in time. This protein formulation alters the neurons' sodium channel properties to decrease the bandwidth of the information transferred in the synaptic dendrites. The restriction of information results in lower comparisons processed by the brain, giving a sensation of reduced change or acceleration.

The Duration shot extrapolates the elasticity of time. This protein formulation bypasses the common memory formation mechanism and grants control to the amygdala's secondary memory mechanisms that continuously register memory experiences, thereby giving a perception of a very long duration. The experience is similar to the ones that the brain experiences under fear, trauma, and longing.

Karan interviewed various subject matter experts in the fields of Psychology, Cognitive Neurology, Chronobiology, and Medicine during his design research phase to gain insights into experiential time. During these interviews, he learned that neurologically, time is only a reflection of change, and it is perceived as flowing due to the way the brain is hardwired. It was during one of his interviews, when the interviewee referenced examples of Alzheimer's patients for spatial-temporal distortion, that Karan saw the possibility of a neural-hacking kit.

During the digital ethnographic research phase for his thesis, Karan came across many participants who expressed a conflict in experiential time and clock time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through his in-depth research, Karan learned that the brain constructs a sense of time-based on the subjective experiences a person undergoes. Karan started exploring various ways to highlight the non-linearity of time by sketching and making different low fidelity prototypes.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Karan also created an advertising campaign for Timescape. Check out some of the billboard designs here:

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Karan says that Timescape explores ways of deconstructing our mental models of clock time that are linear, consistent, repetitive, and continuously flowing, instead of non-directional, elastic, non-repetitive, and discrete, which are driven by our experiences. The project’s next steps? “Since this is a speculative product, I would like to co-create with people, experiences, or interventions that will facilitate or emphasize qualitative experiential time instead of the static clock/time in our existing systems,” Karan shares. Stay tuned—the Class of 2021 Thesis Presentations will go live May 22!