The Clock Clock (2008-2010) was one of the first collaborative projects by Humans since 1982 and the catalyst for their ongoing exploration of the concept of time through kinetic sculptural works. The Clock Clock subverts clocks to represent them as art objects, unleashed from a solely pragmatic existence. The hands of multiple analogue clocks are programmed to spin individually and in formation to perform an abstract choreography. Once every minute, the clock hands align to accurately display the time in a digital typography, playfully reporting and representing the concept of time passing.
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Reflecting on the early experiments that lead to the development of The Clock Clock, studio founders Bastian Bischoff & Per Emanuelsson say:
“We experimented with animated typography and developed a font that was based on a grid of clocks, whereby we made the clock-hands stop in certain positions in order to create letters and digits. Once the clock hands rotated again the characters would fall apart. Using clocks to show this circle of formation and decline was intriguing and after some experimentation it proved to be beautiful too. Even though the movement of each clock hand is very restricted and simple – as it can just rotate around the ever-same centre – when programmed to move simultaneously with the other clock-hands, referring to each other in time and space, it created something with emergent properties: the whole was more than just the sum of its parts.”
The first limited edition of The Clock Clock was exhibited at Saatchi Gallery London in 2010 and was soon acquired by prominent museums like the International Museum of Horology in La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland.
The concept has developed in ambition, complexity and scale over the past decade into the ongoing series A million Times. This includes a series of available editions as well as major public commissions such as A million Times at Changi, a 504 clock face artwork that is one of the largest kinetic sculptures in the world.
SOLD
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Aluminium, electronic components
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1300 x 450 x 60 mm
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Edition of 5 + 2 AP + 1 Prototype
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The ClockClock was exhibited at:
2009: Talent Zone, Tent London, London, UK.
2010: Connectors, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK.
2011: O’Clock, time design, design time, Triennale Design Museum. Milan, Italy.
2012: New Work, Clarion Hotel, Stockholm, Sweden.
2012: International Film Festival Da!Fest. St. Petersburg, Russia, November 19 - 25.
2013: Night Time - Dream Real, Design Shanghai 2013, Power Station of Art Museum, Shanghai, China.
2013: Design Column #6 ‘dataism’, Museum Boijmans, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
2013: Cutlog, Lebenson Gallery/Atelier Richelieu, Paris, France.
2013: Design Miami via Victor Hunt Gallery, Miami, USA.
2013: O’Clock, time design, design time, Cafa Art Center, Beijing, China.
2015: Telling Time, MUDAC - Musée de design et d'arts appliquées contemporains, Lausanne, Switzerland.
2016: Emergence Room, Dillon+Lee Gallery, Solo show, New York, USA.
2017: Lost in Play, CHAO Art Center, Beijing, China.
2020: TIME, Cube Design Museum, Kerkrade, Netherlands.
