“You have 4 minutes for your presentation.” This sentence may not make any sense to you. But it meant a lot to the technology startups that I had the chance to meet. I would like to describe a ritual related to this sentence with a device.
The device that I share in this post is not a technological solution. Maybe we can define it as a reuse project because of the components used. But my goal was neither. I built it because I wanted to keep a ritual as a memory.
I have had the chance to work with technology startups for a long time. A good presentation was the best way for these startups to express themselves to the organizations. For this purpose, usually each startup was given 4 minutes for their presentation. The time was followed with the help of a tablet computer. And the time of the presentation was started by a moderator. If an unexpected situation happened during this presentation, the timer was stopped… and restarted. When the presentation time was up, a bell was gently rung. When the presentation was over, a new 4-minute period was started for the Q&A session. And at the end of the Q/A session, the bell was rung several times. It meant that all the sessions are over.
But when the pandemic came, it became a little difficult (and little funny) to do this. The same tablet started to participate in the juries with us. Somebody was controlling the timer again and the image of it was projected into the conversation by the help of another computer. Yes, it required 2 computers and one person to show a timer at the online presentation. That was the moment I wanted to turn into an object…
I find this solution a bit ironic and it reminds me working principle of Camera Obscura. We were listening to technology startups and using computers, but a very primitive method came to our aid. Here is the working principle of this timer. In the well-insulated dark room inside, a high-resolution camera monitors a digital clock and transmits it to the computer.
A simple and maybe a funny optical illusion…
Thank you kindly!
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