Corpus Clock
Online on Wired Magazine today they posted an article about a clock at Corpus Christi College designed by clock aficionado, John Taylor.
As you may guess from its inclusion in this post, Taylor’s clock is no ordinary clock.
True, it is clock-shaped but instead of hands it has glowing LEDs on its face that indicate the passage of time. It also has a horrific grasshopper-like beast called the “Chronophage” ticking away the seconds, minutes, and hours on the top.
The Wired article bi-line is “Ravenous Clock Runs Backwards, Scares Children” and after seeing this clock, I am now thinking they weren’t joking with the “Scares Children” part.
The closer you get to the grasshopper, the scarier it looks. It makes one wonder (especially if one is a psychologist) as to Taylor’s feelings about time. Maybe something about time being devoured by a ferocious beast until the plate is empty?
Chronophage close-up
That is something else about this clock, it lends itself to metaphors – probably because it’s inventor uses numerous metaphors (and puns) in its design. For example, that horrible grasshopper? It is actually a grasshopper escapement, which is a device that slowly moves the gears of a clock forward with each swing of the pendulum. In the case of the Corpus Clock, it is a grasshopper escapement made real. Watch the embedded video below to see the grasshopper’s legs reach and grab the clock face to move it along.
By watching the video with its narration by Taylor, you get to see how some other concepts associated with time are embedded metaphorically into the clock’s design. For example, the clock sometimes runs more slowly or more quickly. Taylor says that this is, in part, because he wants the clock to capture people’s attention (it is usually a good idea to be mindful of the time). However, he says it also captures the subjective quality of the perception of the passage of time. When you are doing something you enjoy, then time seems to pass very quickly. When you are doing something you do not enjoy, a minute feels like an hour.
The video doesn’t indicate whether the clock, in general, accurately records the time. I do know that it is a fully mechanical clock and that it is beautifully crafted. I agree with the article in its assessment of Taylor’s Corpus Clock as “steampunkeriffic”