Time Out

The work Time Out illustrates Clements’ preoccupation with the disruption of meaning (narrative), through the altering of original moving image and contexts for viewing. The work’s starting point, a social guidance film, was produced to convince the US population in the 1960’s to exert some control over their emotional state in order to avoid an accident. This 1961 safety film Time Out for Trouble is the epitome of suburban horror. Housewife Jane is tormented by a clock in her home that was a gift from her mother-in-law. The clock initiates accidents and then blames the victims for “letting their emotions run away with them”. The underlying message is that emotionally volatile situations often result in accidents, because when people act irrationally they ignore the safety precautions that they would usually follow. Taking on board the idea that social guidance films such as Time Out for Trouble existed as a kind of moving image rule book for society, Time Out was created using a system of controlled chance that necessitated the removal of emotional decision making, thereby simultaneously exploiting and subverting the film’s original message and purpose. The intention for making was the creation of a film using non-traditional processes of editing (indeterminacy and randomness) with an aim to create an alternative, non-linear narrative