About
This project aims to disrupt how we orient ourselves toward future time. Instead of treating the future as a fixed set of points we move toward, the clock reverses the reference frame. Stable reference points exist only in the past, while the present trails behind them.
The hour and minute hands shift position at irregular intervals. The minute hand drifts within a limited range, trailing up to roughly eight minutes from its current reference point before that reference point updates. The design reflects a simple observation. Exact time is rarely necessary. In most situations an approximate sense of time is sufficient. When precise time is required, a phone or another conventional clock is almost always nearby.
The visual elements of the clock also change throughout the day. The clock face, hands, and reference markers move through a rotating set of colors that correspond to different periods of the day. The system reads the date and time from the device and adjusts the sunset reference accordingly so that the color shifts remain tied to local daylight conditions.
The clock series is accompanied by written text. The text invites viewers to reflect on how they orient themselves within a day and how that orientation has changed over time. It examines what appears to be a gradual decline in our ability to describe and situate ourselves within time without relying on precise numerical measurement. The project also includes brief historical notes on how different cultures have structured the day and described time.
A working prototype has been developed for Apple Watch. The application is currently in final development and will be released pending approval from the Apple App Store.
Larger installations are planned using 27 inch cylindrical LCD displays.
The clock must be viewed using a desktop browser. Mobile devices are not able to render the animation.
How was your day?
Before continuing, please take a moment and think about the words you use to describe a day.
Productive, unproductive. Good, bad. Stressful.
Industrial society treats time as a measurable resource. It is tracked, optimized, and evaluated relative to productivity. This framing is historically recent. In pre modern traditions, time was not primarily understood as a unit of economic output. It was understood as a context for ethical, social, or cosmological participation.
The purpose of this time piece is to decouple and disrupt the predictability of time. Reference points are always in the past; the future is unfixed.
Historical Conceptions of Daily Life
Classical China
Classical Chinese thought presents two influential frameworks.
Confucian philosophy emphasized xiu shen, or self cultivation. The individual was expected to refine character and fulfill defined social roles, especially within the family. Daily life was structured around responsibility and moral development.
Daoist philosophy introduced the concept of wuwei, often translated as non forcing or non coercive action. The principle does not imply passivity. It refers to action that does not resist the natural course of events. A related idea, tian ren he yi, describes alignment between human activity and the broader patterns of the natural world.
A meaningful day, in this context, involved both ethical responsibility and measured, non excessive action.
Ancient Greece
Greek thought distinguished between chronos, sequential time, and kairos, the appropriate or opportune moment. While chronological time was recognized, emphasis was often placed on the qualitative dimension of experience.
The term schole referred to leisure understood as time for reflection, philosophy, and civic participation. It did not imply inactivity. It described the conditions necessary for intellectual and moral development.
The concept of eudaimonia is commonly translated as flourishing. It described a life characterized by sustained excellence, or arete. A successful day contributed to this longer process of development rather than simply meeting material needs.
Vedic and Classical Indian Thought
In many Indian traditions, time was conceptualized as cyclical rather than linear. The image of the wheel, kalachakra, reflects this structure.
Daily life was organized around dharma, or right duty, defined by social role and stage of life. The concept of nishkama karma instructed individuals to perform their work without attachment to outcomes. The focus was on disciplined participation rather than measurable results.
Ritual practices structured the day and were intended as forms of ethical and spiritual refinement.
Ancient Egypt
Egyptian cosmology centered on ma’at, a principle encompassing order, balance, and truth. Daily conduct was evaluated against this standard.
The cycle of the sun symbolized renewal and continuity. Ordinary labor, whether administrative or agricultural, was understood as contributing to the maintenance of cosmic order. The significance of the day derived from its role in sustaining stability rather than maximizing production.
Achaemenid Persia and Zoroastrianism
In Zoroastrian thought, time was the arena of an ongoing moral struggle between truth and falsehood. The concept of asha represented order and truth.
Individuals were expected to support asha through “good thoughts, good words, good deeds.” Daily actions were interpreted within a larger ethical framework. Neutral time did not exist; each action carried moral weight.
The Maya
Maya calendrical systems assigned specific qualities to individual days. Days were not interchangeable units. Each carried distinct symbolic associations.
Time operated within a framework of reciprocity, sometimes described through the concept of to’j. Human actions were understood as responses to the qualities of the day rather than as isolated acts of productivity.