Link to interactive sketch.

For this creative assignment, I wanted to create a scene that depicted the idea of time. I sat with a few concepts before a strong one emerged. With this piece, I wanted to illustrate the passing of time using a cemetery as the backdrop. There’s a stillness that comes with cemeteries, and the idea of death has this feeling of being stationary—frozen in time. But time still goes on, even in death.

I started this sketch by building out 3 different scenes: day, dusk and night. Each scene uses the same core elements, but there are subtle differences across each, whether it’s the color of the sky, the placement of the sun or the craters in the moon. I built these 3 scenes as custom functions.

From there, I wanted to depict the idea of time through interactive storytelling: I wanted each click to cycle through the phases of the day in order. To do this, I used an array to house the custom functions themselves, and I also used an array for my text elements. Now on click, users can see the day’s progression, read the related text for each scene and eventually come to their own conclusion of what this sketch means. The click itself becomes a small act of time passing, which felt fitting for this assignment.

let myQuotes = ["day", "dusk", "night"]; // the time of day is used in an array

let myScenes = [dayScene, dawnScene, nightScene]; // puts the custom functions in an array

let sceneIndex = 0;

let quoteIndex = 0;

As I was working through it, I realized that a repeat loop would have come in handy for my shrubbery elements. I feel like the code could have been cleaner using a loop, but I will make sure I explore how to do that going forward. I also would be interested in seeing how a repeat loop could be used to build out more detailing on certain elements.

With this sketch, I was able to merge concepts and ideas together to achieve my goal. It feels good to see how what we’re learning in class is finally starting to click outside of class, and I’m excited to see what creative ideas I come up with as I continue to dive deeper.