Swedish design group Humans Since 1982 created this digital readout called The Clock Clock made of 24 analog clocks. Notice the time reads 09:25 digitally above. You can go to their website to see an animation of the clocks in action as well as download the font they create. Thanks to Creobic for this link where you can find other analog digital clocks.
Member Austin Quig-Hartman sent in a reference to this very cool clock project by Che-Wei Wang. It reminds me of a clock version of Art Ganson’s “Machine with Concrete.“ What I find really interesting is that the designer ended up with 3.16 billion cycles which is basically the average number of beats a human heart will beat in a lifetime. I am not convinced the little belt drives will make it very long into the future, but a beautiful execution and thought process all around.
From the designers write up:
Can we watch decay? Can we see glass as a fluid slowly slumping and deforming over time? Everything is in constant flux, yet we consider many things around us static and fixed. 3.16 Billion Cycles is an attempt to unravel a seemingly unchanging 100 years into a set of relationships in digestible increments.
A 60 rpm (revolutions per minute) motor drives the entire mechanism. It rotates once every second. The following pulley rotates once every 5 seconds (1:5 ratio). The next rotates once every 60 seconds or 1 minute. Then 5 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 month, 1 year, and 1 decade. The decade wheel carries the load of the large arc. The large arc rotates once every century. The final ratio between the 60 rpm motor and the large arc is approximately 1:31.6 billion.
Each wheel is marked with a black nut to highlight a position that could be tracked over time. Along the arc, 100 lines mark the divisions of each passing year. When the clock finally reaches the end of a 100 year cycle, the arc falls off its track onto the floor.
La Machine à Ecrire le Temps (translates to The Machine that Writes the Time). A gorgeous piece presented at Baselworld 2009. Our first versions of the Clock prototype worked with analog time that was converted through via a digital adder to time outputs, but it never occurred to me to write it out on paper… Reminds me of the so very cool Difference Engine printer. [via Engaget, and sent to me by Chris Baldwin, Thanks]
By the way of Chris Anderson’s TED twitterfeed I rediscovered the Artificial Owl site of “The most fascinating man-made abandoned creations + Their story and location.” They now have a visual archive, google map, and much more content. Really wonderful stuff, and great lessons for anyone like us trying to build long lasting artifacts.
Two sand calendars… One year “hourglasses”, each claims to the the largest. I really wonder how those bearings are holding up on the Timewheel. (More from Oddity Central with more pics.)
The Timewheel is the world’s largest hourglass, situated in Budapest, Hungary next to City Park, right of Heroes’ Square and behind the Palace of Art (Műcsarnok). It is made of granite, steel, and glass, and weighs 60 tons. The “sand” (actually glass granules) flows from the upper to the lower glass chamber for one year. - Wikipedia
And the other one from Japan filled with ‘”singing sand” at the Nima Sand Museum in Kotoga Beach:
Stewart Brand sent me this interesting bit on a couple of potential long term building materials that have recently been discovered to be improving rather than degrading their environs:
Recently a new building, the Dives in Misericordia Church in Rome, seemed to be reducing the concentration of urban pollutants in its immediate vicinity (36). Upon investigation, it was discovered that the titanium dioxide coating on the large concrete walls of the church was reacting with nitrogen oxide pollutants in a photocatalytic reaction, resulting in a decrease of pollutants in the area. Although the TiO2 was originally specified for its visual qualities and self-cleaning properties, its effect on local pollutants was a surprise to the architects and engineers of the building. Further research is needed to determine efficacy and real benefits, but proposals are already surfacing for the use of photocatalytic coatings in sidewalks and roads to neutralize the concentration of pollutants found in dense urban conditions.
Also, a “new” material-polyamide, or nylon-has emerged in applications as a “smart” vapor barrier in exterior envelopes. Its water vapor permeability increases by a factor of 10 in conditions of very high humidity. This is particularly useful when moisture is trapped inside a wall assembly. The vapor barrier becomes more permeable and allows moisture to escape, reducing the risk of corrosion, rot, and the growth of mold and mildew. Although nylon was discovered in 1931, its properties as a vapor barrier were not described until 1999, and it was recently commercialized for this purpose (37)
Science 30 March 2007:
Vol. 315. no. 5820, pp. 1807 - 1810
DOI: 10.1126/science.1137542Materials for Aesthetic, Energy-Efficient, and Self-Diagnostic Buildings
John E. Fernández
On my last trip to England I visited the cathedral in Ely and was struck by the longevity of large structural beams made from a material that I dont really think of as a millennial building material… wood. The main beams that support the 170 foot tall “lantern tower” called the Octagon are about 700 years old, and show no sign of deterioration (pictured above and below).
While some of the joinery has been updated and serviced, the main structural elements are original and have taken the maintenance gracefully. What’s more, I am certain these are not the oldest structural wood beams in the world (Here are some suggested by commenters: 1 & 2) Below is a photo looking up toward the Octagon that these beams support:
We are regularly researching and making estimates on how long various materials can last for the Clock project. This cathedral reminds me that maintaining a dry environment and institutional continuity are really what makes something last on a millennial scale..
Back in November of 02004 Stewart Brand gave a very comprehensive talk at TED on our plans for the Nevada Clock site. I had never seen it until TED talks posted it just recently. Stewart talks through each aspect of our many years of site visits out there, and how we are looking at using the site. Also if any of you have not seen his City Planet talk, that is also up on TED here. In addition it looks like TED has followed our lead and is now using the crowd-sourced technology of DotSub to translate their online talks.
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