Shortcuts

Concepts and Considerations

Could we think of shortcuts as of time tunnels for everyday use?

Shortcuts are closely related to time in many ways. They are used to shorten the way between two points in space: an ideal short cut would be defined by the minimal distance between these points, and thus to take the shortcut should need also minimal time or mean a reduced duration of waytime.

However, when it comes to everyday practice, additional factors have to be taken into account. First of all, there are the spatial conditions: Imagine you are walking in the mountains. Wandering upwards or downwards on a way in serpentines may be the opposite of a shortcut. Yet, depending on your condition it might be not only more exhausting (and also more dangerous) to take a short cut straight upwards or downwards. In case the terrain is rather steep, using the shortcut may make you move very slow, and using the shortcut could mean prolonging your waytime.

Now when it comes to shortcuts in urban space, there are lots of additional factors becoming likewise relevant. Also cities may be built on hills and thus call for similar decisions about taking shorter, but steeper ways or not. However, in any case space in cities is structured in a way that will make taking shortcuts even more difficult: Houses, fenced property, traffic and, in case, also a variety of social factors, not to mention risks related to crossing certain areas have to be taken in account. Also shortcuts can be deleted by those living in houses around, i.e. because they do not want passers-by to walk through their backyards, to perhaps drop waste etc. Thus, once established shortcuts do not necessarily last forever (or for a longer time).

Just as time tunnels, they may exist only temporarily, open only within certain time-frames and/or be accessible only for some people and for others not.

Note: There are several cultural practices dealing with this matter of fact. I.e., one could mention the "1 cm (One centimeter) Walk" method established for psychegeographic walks, an exercise that start with drawing a straight line of one centimeter in length on a map, and then trying to walk it in real space. This practice will likely confront the walker(s) with obstacles, and urge them to find their way through or around. One might have to decide about walking over cars, ringing people's bells to ask for allowance to cross their backyards (or even their flats) etc. A similar practice developed more recently is Parcours. However, Parcours is generally very risky; people involved in this activity need a lot of training and fitness – and while many movies (and nowadays even more video clips on the internet) may sport spectacular scenes, these should perhaps better come with the claim "Don't try this at home". In the end, real life is not a jump'n'run video/computer game.

Last but not least, when it comes to subjective perception of distances, and of space-time relations in general, dealing with shortcuts proves to be even more complicated.
Apart from general decisions about the area to cross – including the mentioned social factors, some of them directly related to time, as i.e. there might be areas that are not dangerous during daytime / daylight, but probably more risky to cross in the dark – there is also the subjective perception of waytimes.

I.e., ways with many stops and waiting times at traffic light might be indeed shorter and/or perceived as shorter compared to longer distances that are straight way, but sport a rather homogenous, "unpleasant" and/or "boring" environment.
Moreover, many people are deceived by their subjective perception of distances – and they also tend to be kind of ignorant against geographical conditions etc.

Indeed, people may think they are gaining time by using shortcuts – while as a matter of fact they do not, or at least not they way they think they do. However, already the subjective perception of making a shortcut, and thereby "sparing time", will obviously have consequences in terms of dealing with time.

Nevertheless, or perhaps: For exactly that reason, shortcuts are an not only a good issue for research on time, and especially on subjective time and on methods of time bending. They are also proper candidates for becoming TBC mechanisms (see ibid.).
Moreover, they may invite us to think about Shortcut Clocks (see ibid.)

Related TIK research on short cuts has been done during the TIK Radio workshop in Bratislava (March 2011). Among the Bratislava Shortcuts researched so far there has been at least one perfect candidate for being labeled as TBC mechanism, and perhaps also as an [EcoTimeZone] (see ibid.). For the time being it is to be found crossing the "Filialka", a wasted area right in the center of a lively city quarter close to the big market hall, enclosed by large apartment buildings and streets with loads of traffic. The area itself is really waste land, structured by tracks that are not in use anymore. and sports some buildings and sheds in ruins. Until recently, many homeless people used to live here, but as of March 2011, they seem to be gone. Yet there are some people living on the terrain: There is an inhabited house close to a small transformator station, and there are small houses more recently built in one corner close to the market area. However, right in the center of "Filialka" there is also a crossing of paths where one can observe people taking a shortcut in favour of the rather long way one would have to take by walking around "Filialka" to reach the opposite parts of the quarter.

Thanks to Michal for bringing up the issue of short cuts, and to all participating TIKkers for collaboratively working on it. For more info about the Bratislava TIK Radio Workshop, the Bratislava Shortcuts etc. see the related pages of ]]TIK Radio[[ in the ]]TIK Wiki[[.

Related entries:
[EcoTimeZones]
[Shortcut Clocks]
[TBC Mechanisms]
[TIK Radio]
[Time Travel]
Time Tunnels (work in progress)
Wormholes (work in progress)
…

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tags: space, tik, time, urban space