Time Travel: Time Dilation

In this paper I discuss the theory and actuality of the effects of Time Dilation, as predicted by Einstein’s Special Relativity. Alongside this the research investigates the visible, experiential effects of most personal form of Time Travel from a personal, phenomenological perspective, illustrated through digital media. The body of work, this paper and an accompanying book of modified digital images, recalls the Hafele-Keating experiment of October 1971 and parallels the Quantified Self experiments of diary photography and personal analytics in a holistic, interconnected way. The work tracks 12 months of air travel and illustrates with practical data the physics and mathematics behind the theory and actuality of Time Dilation. The research combines the interdisciplinary worlds of Computer Arts with Data and Scientific Visualisation to create a tangible collision between the visualisation of the personal and illustration of theory The observations are documented in ethnographic, photo essay illustrations as an investigation into the mathematics and physics of personal and interpersonal time. Using situated imaging presented as a practice-based body of work to communicate the abstract world of very small time periods and the direct relevance of Einstein's work on the personal and perceptual world we inhabit. Contrasting Newtonian mechanics and Einsteinian space-time the work seeks to illustrate the personal nature of how the reality of time travel influences every aspect of the interpersonal