An insane clock that is built before your very eyes from Mark Formanek

Date
1 May 2012

Usually readers I can assure you I am a bastion of editorial austerity, casting a critical eye over work and occasionally twitching a corner of my mouth in understated but genuine pleasure (like a benevolent Roman emperor). At other times though the facade slips and I let out a little shriek of delight – seeing Mark Formanek’s Standard Time definitely caused the latter.

For a while now the artist has been creating this amazing installation whereby he builds a 24 hour clock in the real world, filming the whole performance as he goes. The latest incarnation inn front of Berlin’s iconic TV tower took 70 workers and 1,611 changes to accomplish but it works magnificently, and the resulting video is available online as an actual real-time clock..

“A clock for use right now and in the future which, as each day goes by, extends further into the past, but is still up-to-date and punctual,” the artist explains. Time it seems, really is only a construct.

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About the Author

Rob Alderson

Rob joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in July 2011 before becoming Editor-in-Chief and working across all editorial projects including itsnicethat.com, Printed Pages, Here and Nicer Tuesdays. Rob left It’s Nice That in June 2015.

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