Impossible Objects #27: Parallel of Time clock
What this blog really needs is an “illusory axonometric timepiece”. And here it is: the latest Impossible Object comes courtesy of the Australian architects and designers Clarke Hopkins Clarke.
We’ve featured faceless watches a number of times before but this display is rather more elegant than previous LED crypticness… It’s basically a parallelogram formed from multiple, differently positioned clock hands (speeded up, somewhat, in the video below).
The Melbourne architects writes:
Time is parallel. The speed of time (on earth) is indubitable but everyone’s perception of the speed is somehow different. Using multiple clocks and cables to create a number of parallelograms, a design is generated: the Parallel of Time. The parallelograms are interconnected, creating an optically illusory axonometric timepiece.
Mechanically speaking, since the hands on every clock (within the same time zone) produce the same angle, the lengths of the connecting cables remain constant as the clocks run. The hour and minute hands are positioned on either side of the glass to prevent cable collisions.
Want to see it in motion?
Previous Impossible Objects we’ve covered:
- the Upside down buildings
- the wall-sized light switch
- the liquid table
- the liquid lamp
- the foetal bed
the wall stairs
the piano stairs
the shattering door
the wooden mirror
the Wingdings keyboard
the door lock maze
the dark lamp the global chess board the curved keyboard the implausible plug
the infinite tap
the simplified calculator
the electric hammer
the signature coffee pot