Experimental Clock

Initial Sketches and Pseudocode

Workings/Reflection

My clock makes use of all time-keeping parameters bundled in P5 to create something that's effectively useless. Capable of telling time within an hour's accuracy, the only cement indication of a change in time, in the short scale, is the color of the background, programmed to change each hour to reflect the color of the sky at said time (the colors are static and hard-programmed, so they don't well reflect the time changes over the course of seasons). Built into the center of the clock is a minute and second counter, respectively orbiting around each other and capable of giving a second-by- second readout of realtime. The three most prominent features of the clock are the varied rings: the innermost one indicates the day of the month (out of 31 days), the month of the year, and the year relative to this decade (2020 - 2030). The rings are intended to remain more-or-less static while viewing the clock with the goal of drawing attention to a macro sense of time as a long-term entity than an effective means by which one could make plans. While the clock does keep time perfectly to the hour, its layout draws attention to events in the immediate and far future without making any meaningful indications of doing such.

The design process proved to be immensely messy and not at all what I planned on creating when I set out to first make a novel clock. Originally, I intended to make a clock only able to tell the time between the Big Bang and the universe's inevitable heat death, though I found the idea lacking in any interesting visual representation given my limited knowledge of P5. I then experimented with implementing a particle system and some Boidian logic and ultimately failed, resulting in the hyper-minimal clock I ended up drawing. That being said, I used none of my original plans or pseudocode and only started documenting the project's construction halfway through. Overall, the design process was math-intensive and much of my brainstorming was for naught since it was never implemented, but overall I'm pleased with the design's general feel.