Time Scroll is a web browser-based 24 hour clock. Every increment of the 24 cycle, down to the second, is rendered to the browser. It starts with 00:00:00 at the top and ends with 23:59:59 at the bottom. Each second, the browser scrolls one tick downward to change the display of the current time. The location of the browser’s scroll bar gives you a general sense of where we are in time relative to the 24 hour cycle.

Time Scroll is written in Javascript and PHP.

[Time Scroll]

Some clocks are functional, some are not very practical. This is an ongoing series of clock experiments.

Each clock is written in Processing and presented here using processing.js.

link: [time 00]

We rely heavily on our vision to identify change. We see sand accumulating at the bottom of the hourglass. We see the minute hand rotate clockwise. How would our sense of time change if we cast time to another sense?

Thermal Clock is a timepiece that positions heat along a bar over a 24 hour cycle to tell time.

Using an array of peltier junctions, heat is emitted from a focused area moving from left to right along the bar over the course of a day.

Thermal Clock from che-wei wang on Vimeo.

Time is our measure of a constant beat. We use seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, etc. But what if we measured time against rituals, chores, tasks, stories, and narratives? How can we use our memory, prediction, familiar and unfamiliar narratives to tell time?

As a child, I remember using the length of songs as a way to measure how much time was left during a trip. A song was an appropriate period to easily multiply to get a grasp of any larger measure like the time left until we arrived to our grandmother’s place. The length of a song was also a measure I could digest and understand in an instant.

The first iteration of Cinematic Timepiece consists of 5 video loops playing at 5 different speeds on a single screen. The video is of a person coloring in a large circle on a wall.

The frame furthest to the right is a video loop that completes a cycle in one minute. The video to the left of the minute loop completes its cycle in one hour. The next completes in a day, then a month, then a year.

Through various iterations, we intend to experiment with various narratives and rituals captured in a video loop to be read as measures of time.

The software was written in OpenFrameworks for a single screen to be expanded in the future for multiple screens as a piece of hardware.

Cinematic Timepiece is being developed in collaboration with Taylor Levy.

Download the fullscreen app version [http://drop.io/cinematicTimepiece#]

Part One : In a Lifetime

Part Two : Cinematic Timepiece

Part Three : One Hour Sprocket

Part Four : Thermal Clock

Part Five : Counting to a Billion

Part Six : 3.16 Billion Cycles

Six timekeeping devices were built as part of my thesis project at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at TISCH, NYU.

Counting to a Billion is a device created to fulfill the desire to count. The electronics consists of a microcontroller, a speech module, and a speaker powered by a rechargeable battery. There is no/off switch. The voice will keep counting when the device is unplugged and if the battery is drained, the count will pick up where it left off when the battery recharges. The voice begins counting at one, two, three and continues counting up until it reaches one billion at which point in time it will stop.

If it took a second to utter each string of numbers, it would take 1 billion seconds or 31.7 years for the device to reach its end. But since it takes more than a second to vocalize many of the numbers in the sequence, it may take upwards of 60 years to complete.

The unit is housed in a solid block of aluminum, cnc milled into a vessel that was designed to withstand substantial abuse over many years.

Counting to a Billion is for sale as an edition of 5.

Materials: Aluminum, custom electronics
Dimensions: 4” (10cm) diameter, 6” (15cm) height, freestanding

Counting to a Billion from che-wei wang on Vimeo.

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.

3.16 Billion Cycles is for sale as an edition of 5.

Materials:Aluminum, AC sync motor, rubber belts.
Dimensions: 46” diameter (107cm), 6” (15cm) deep, wall mouted

3.16 Billion Cycles from che-wei wang on Vimeo.

Special thanks to Julian LaVerdiere, Jessica Banks, Andrew Laska, Dustyn Roberts, Kevin Slavin, Al Zuger, and Milgo Bufkin for all their help.

We often compare ourselves to friends, colleagues, relatives, idols, etc. on a scale of time that’s beyond our comprehension. Full of hope and objectives that are far into the future, we strive to achieve as much as our parents, friends, and heroes.
What do you plan to achieve in the next 5 years? 10 years? 20? How long will you live?

Though there are many unknowns, we share one lifetime as a common measure.

In a Lifetime is a website that visualizes individual achievements and milestones along the scale of one lifetime. Each point along the arc represents a milestone where the top (12th hour) is their moment of birth, the right quadrant (3rd hour) is a quarter through their life, the bottom (6th hour) is half way through their life, and so on. The mapping strips age as a parameter from individuals and scales lifespans to compare achievements of one life with another.

The website collects information about each individual through a publicly accessible interface. Input parameters are, author, date of birth, lifespan, milestone or note, and significance (0-100). Anyone who visits the site can enter information about an individual to be mapped. If one so desires, you can enter your predicted lifespan to compare personal milestones to others.

Some patterns emerge. Significant achievements are made between the half way point and the 3/4 point of their lives. Beyond the 3/4 point, nearly all individuals stop accruing achievements .
Around the half way point in their individual lives, Albert Einstein wrote the General Theory of Relativity, Constantin Brancusi completed the Kiss, Le Corbusier completed Villa Savoye, Leonardo Da Vinci drew the proportions of human figure after Vitruvious.

In a Lifetime was built using javascript, php, and mySQL.
(tested on firefox 3 and safari)

Current Version: 0.08
Released:5.24.2007
Creator: Che-Wei Wang
License: GNU Public License (source)
Download Beta: Haptic Clock 08.jad, Haptic Clock 08.jar
Beta means it may not work on your phone or worse, may break your phone. Install and use at your own risk.
Tested on: Nokia E70
Issues: J2ME drains the batteries. Looking for ways around it, or a more efficient platform.