Forward Through Backwards Time

The folks at Rocketboom released a lovely, dreamlike episode this week in which host Joanne Colan appears to move forward in time through a reverse-time New York City.

[#1 posted by technogirl , March 22, 2008 9:27 PM]

The "Wizardess" of Speed and Tme ?

[#2 posted by bpm140 , March 22, 2008 9:50 PM]

Wow, that was surprisingly good.

[#3 posted by ianm , March 22, 2008 10:19 PM]

The film is delightful, but the contrast between the life that exits in NYC vs Winnipeg (where I've lived my whole life) is quite striking. Our streets are barren, theirs are fertile.

[#4 posted by DoorFrame , March 22, 2008 11:07 PM]

That was fantastic.

[#5 posted by George Ruiz , March 22, 2008 11:10 PM]

That was a little slice of wonderful.

[#6 posted by HornCologne , March 22, 2008 11:53 PM]

I've got good news! That gum you like is going to come back in style!

...

I feel like I know her, but sometimes my arms bend back.

[#7 posted by trintrin , March 22, 2008 11:53 PM]

Makes me think of the video for The Scientist by Coldplay. It was filmed with the singer lip-syncing backwards but moving forward, and then reversed.

[#8 posted by djordan , March 23, 2008 12:31 AM]

That was pretty cool.
Although, I'm surprised she wasn't arrested for doing that. These days it seems like doing anything that isn't "normal" makes you a criminal.

[#9 posted by dagoon86 , March 23, 2008 12:35 AM]

Cool video! The way she does things backward looks so calmly that I hardly see any error. There are a few people looking at her, though.

This can be a new style of making personal videos. Isn't it cool if you can share a video of you walking through backward time in your city or town?

[#10 posted by KingSara , March 23, 2008 2:53 AM]

A New Zealand band did a similar thing for a music video a while ago:

[#11 posted by sonny p fontaine , March 23, 2008 3:27 AM]

Wait a moment! Is this to say that is not what reality looks like? Whoa...I gotta sit down quik.

[#12 posted by Mikee Showbiz , March 23, 2008 3:45 AM]

This reminds me of the Nicolas Cage movie, Bringing Out The Dead. There's an awesome scene in that filmed in a similar way, where the snow appears to be rising from the ground whilst Cage walks normally.

[#13 posted by han , March 23, 2008 4:19 AM]

The hard part isn't the walking in the wrong direction - it's when you change directions and first start walking back in time, and again when you turn back forward in time: if you aren't careful, you risk bumping into yourself in your subjective past and causing a time paradox.

If you turn around carelessly, you may end up existing more than twice at the same moment of time, and that only increases the risk of shoving yourself around in time and space. Once you accidentally have more than a few copies of yourself at the same moment of time near the same point, you'll need a lot of open space to converge on a stable timeline where no copy of yourself bumps into another.

If there's no space - say, you try to switch time-directions in an elevator - just a small mistake in the turn can end up in tragedy, as more and more simultaneous copies of yourself bounce around uncontrollably in time and space, and fill the elevator at an exponential rate. Every time an elevator around here explodes, this effect is the first thing that comes to my mind.

So, let's be careful when making videos like this!

[#14 posted by gigarizel , March 23, 2008 5:26 AM]

very nice, reminiscent of an old Orbital video for "the box" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q25Zx6B5HJA

[#15 posted by ahoehler , March 23, 2008 5:36 AM]

Meh. Reminds me of the recent Evol short which had basically the same premise only done better and without looking so forced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsF0Eqs8yQ8

[#16 posted by mattyd , March 23, 2008 7:15 AM]

"That was a little slice of wonderful."

And, what a very small slice it was, if that :/

[#17 posted by dougrogers , March 23, 2008 7:23 AM]

Yes, she's walking backwards. It's all very beautiful. But isn't it subtle, and you can tell from how her legs and body move that she's walking backwards. She's more upright when moving backwards, than forward walkers are when moving forward. Her hips and legs also move differently, more rotationally, then driving directly back and forth.

Even the Evol short exaggerated or hid much of the body walking bits.

Some good body acting could mask these little problems entirely.

[#18 posted by Robbo , March 23, 2008 7:54 AM]

That was beautiful. I remember something similar doen for Sesame Street back in the '70's - a guy in a white suit walking through New York. Lovely. Thanks.

[#19 posted by scottfree , March 23, 2008 10:00 AM]

Theres a Red Dwarf episode where they land on Earth after the universe stopped expanding and started contracting, making time move backward.

i don't know why they say time travelers who meet themselves die from shock; i would only die of sheer delight that I could hang out with a future me.

[#20 posted by atomicelroy , March 23, 2008 11:08 AM]

WOW I guess you can teach a new dog old tricks.

[#21 posted by Thomas , March 23, 2008 11:21 AM]

Looks like YouTube took down this video and the McCain one, too. Stupid DMCA property paranioa!

[#22 posted by Nora , March 23, 2008 2:06 PM]

The Rocketboom link isn't working.

[#23 posted by sonny p fontaine , March 23, 2008 2:12 PM]

time travel and the ontological paradox

the whitest kids u'know

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1-bIu_zJP8

[#24 posted by apreacher , March 23, 2008 8:16 PM]

isn't that an old video? or did i just travel forward back to the past when it was a new video?

[#25 posted by silverfish , March 23, 2008 8:42 PM]

New York City has never seemed so peaceful, very nice, thank you.

[#26 posted by vovAURORAvov , March 23, 2008 11:30 PM]

hilariously funny. Well done!

[#27 posted by Beryllium , March 23, 2008 11:54 PM]

I'm just thankful she didn't go to the bathroom.

I bet she is, too.

[#28 posted by phreatic , March 24, 2008 12:05 AM]

If the people on the escalator are going down backwards it means in forward time they would be going up forwards, yet she is on a different escalator also going up forwards. Two up escalators?

I did enjoy that though, especially the cute music.

[#29 posted by lux_aurumque , March 24, 2008 4:38 AM]

@#19 That Red Dwarf episode is great (Backwards from Season III, 1989). Here is a clip from YouTube that has some of the best one-liners and some great backwards shots:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FCkEY29BrC0

Here's another clip from the episode that shows part of the backwards clip forwards so you actually hear what's being said before they reverse the film -- classic!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5fRYLiuBGRg

[#30 posted by sneadhearn , March 24, 2008 8:57 AM]

Nice! But why does she keep just walking in circles around the west side of Union Square?

[#31 posted by Susan Oliver , March 24, 2008 9:39 AM]

Wow, can't believe I'm the only one thinking it was, for lack of a better term, faked. OK, staged. She's walking forwards, everybody else has been choreographed to walk backwards. Their feet strikes just don't look natural to me. This would also explain the escalator.

A for effort, C- for execution.

[#32 posted by MrScience , March 24, 2008 10:45 AM]

Reminds me of the Stairway to Heaven sung backwards (though he's sent take-down notices of all his videos for some reason).
http://www.freewaves.org/artists/j_offerman/

The Mute Math "Typical" shot entirely backwards:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1749622

and (sad) Coldplay's The Scientist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3Kd7IGPyeg&feature=related

I also remember a video of an elderly gentleman walking sloooowly on the sidewalk, even sped up, but can't fnd it.

[#33 posted by dudegalea , March 24, 2008 11:06 AM]

"If the people on the escalator are going down backwards it means in forward time they would be going up forwards, yet she is on a different escalator also going up forwards. Two up escalators?"

Uh, the escalators are going in opposite directions. That remains true whichever way round you play the video.

In real life, she was facing upwards on a down escalator (so she couldn't see where she was going). When the video is reversed, she is facing upwards on an (apparently) up escalator.

Nothing strange here.

[#34 posted by Hbizzle , March 24, 2008 1:55 PM]

Wow - that was totally cool!

A friend of mine made a very similar video a few years back. His incorporates a lot of other time/space discontinuities, but also has similar backwards forwards elements.

Its set to a really sweet tune by Explosions in the Sky:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BXHdDlX1MHM

[#35 posted by Hbizzle , March 24, 2008 1:55 PM]

Wow - that was totally cool!

A friend of mine made a very similar video a few years back. His incorporates a lot of other time/space discontinuities, but also has similar backwards forwards elements.

Its set to a really sweet tune by Explosions in the Sky:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BXHdDlX1MHM

[#36 posted by Jaycatt , March 24, 2008 3:16 PM]

One of my favorite old music videos, where the screen is split in half, and one half shows the video running forward, and the other backwards. Definitely worth a look!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=659LXeV9ZPQ