Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow will be kinetic. Each hourglass will flip after a predetermined period of time. In order to program these rotations, we’ve enlisted the help of a friend (an excellent Programmer out of Toronto, Paul Jarvey) to program and design a circuit board system.

We are using GPS to notify the internal clocks inside our circuit boards of the exact time – regardless of power-outages or daylight savings. Each hourglass has a predetermined running time and is scheduled to flip at a corresponding interval. The running time for every hour glass is an even subdivision of 12 hours (4hr, 3hr, 72 min, 30 min, 6 min, etc.) so at noon and midnight they will all sync up and flip in unison. For tenants and frequent visitors to the space the whole installation will act as a clock with regular viewers measuring time through synchronized events at specific moments.

The circuit boards are installed at regular intervals above the grid structure. This placement was for several reasons. One benefit of having the relays in the same room as the installation is the satisfying click as they activate and de-activate (like the sound of a turn-signal in a car). A student we were speaking with recently pointed out that this is like the sound of a clock – albeit, an abstract one – counting out time.

As part of our experiments, we test-wired temporary hourglasses to observe their interaction with the space. There are still some problems to solve ahead of us – but it’s nice to see progress onsite. Stay tuned!