Centerclock &ndash an alternative graphic timepiece
The centerclock was created in response to an assignment to graphically display the passing of time. Time here is represented as a cluster of circles, each hour that passes a large circle, each minute a medium circle, and each second a small white circle. As sixty second circles have been created, they merge together to create a minute circle. Sixty minute circles merge to create an hour circle.
The Centerclock was not intented as an efficient way to read time, but rather an atmospheric art piece which simply conveyed the passing of time. At a glance you can roughly determine the time. This functionality was intentional since it was intended to be a permenant installment in a lounge or modern bar.
Centerclock is build on a physics simulation system, where each unit of time is a particle of mass which holds its space, colliding with the other particles. However in order to cause seconds to stay in the center and hours to float along the outside, as a dot becomes larger it also becomes lighter in weight. This explains the lofty bounciness of the hours when new seconds appear.
Click the detail image below to see Centerclock in action.
