Vasilis’ nerd blog presents
I make clocks. They are all very nerdy. So they deserve a spot on my nerd blog. But they are also very arty, so they deserve to be on my Love Nonsense blog as well. I chose to write about my clocks on Love Nonsense, so here’s a summary of all the clock posts I wrote over there.
I made a clock that shows the correct time just twice a day. This sounds easy. A picture of a clock would probably do the job for most people. But what if you want to make a digital clock, on the internet, that only shows the correct time two times in 24 hours, and take this literary. I built the clock, but it turned out to be complicated enough to write a complete blog post about it.
Of course I wrote an article about the world famous Pix Clock, the clock that shows the time by showing pictures of clocks. By now the clock is full, it has at least one picture for every minute in a day, thanks to many people who helped. Especially David Krooshof has contributed many, many pictures. More pictures are always welcome, so go ahead and send them to me.
I took a picture of a drawing of a clock which left me puzzled what time it was on that clock. I turned it into a useless, complicated, but working clock.
When Erik van Blokland released his NCND font I just had to make a few clocks with it. I especially loved the variable power axis of the font, which resembles the way old mechanical typewriters used to work: the harder you hit the keys, the bolder the letter. I made a few clocks that use a random weights for each letter. And then I decided to write a pinky algorithm, that chooses a force based on the finger that types the letter. A very nice experiment that even turned into a nice physical clock.
I used to have a problem with square clocks, and thanks to my daughter’s maths classes I was able to solve it once and for all. In the end it turned into a unforeseen graphic clock.
I recreated an medieval clock mechanism with modern CSS. It’s the so called wandering hour mechanism and it’s brilliant. I wrote about the process of building it.
I wrote a few blog posts about anti clocks, or off clocks: clocks where the minute hand is in a different place than you would expect when you look at the hour hand. Usually these clocks need a bit of maintenance, but instead I decided to look for systems where they would show the correct time. Here’s an article about anti clocks, with hands that that move in different directions.
There were other, more complicated ways to make clocks, which turned into this series of off clocks, clocks where the hour hand doesn’t move, or where the face moves together with the hour hand. A very nice experiment that resulted in the even nicer physical alternative to the sun.
Another off clock is on this image of a digital clock that Robert Jan Verkade sent me. It shows the time as 25:14, which triggered me to make a whole series of clocks that could show this timestamp.
So far, all these clocks are just things you look at, not things you have to interact with. I wrote about a few projects where the clocks turned into interactive things, like these rotary phone clocks. One of these clocks is an accessible version of the Pix Clock, which blind people can use as well.
These rotary clocks are physical clocks. I also made a few digital interactive clocks. Clicky clocks, typey clocks, and scrolly clocks
I enjoy making clocks. I’ll probably write more about them in the future. If you enjoy those posts, follow Love Nonsense. Or otherwise wait for the next clock update here on my nerd blog, in a few years.