Telling time used to be something of a civic art. From shadow and water clocks, to early mechanical clocks, and then pendulum timekeepers, a society that could ‘tell time’ kept pace with business, events, and the order of the day.
Today, in an era of ubiquitous mobile phones and devices with their operating systems and digital clocks, that ‘order’ is somewhat taken for granted. Telling time is as easy as pressing a power button and flashing a screen’s data. Contrary to that ease, artist-maker Gregory Degouveia has labored over this mechanical sculpture, “Time to Change,” a nod not only to a shift in his own practice but to our product-disposable society, as the entire project is made from would-be landfill bike frames and components.
Gregory seeks to create “simple machines that arrest the mind with graceful movement” and standing 13′ tall (the sculpture, not Greg!), “Time to Change” is both towering and beguiling, in an era where anything short of quartz oscillators or atomic clocks is trusted to tell us the ‘exact’ time (it astounds the mind to consider that the first quartz clock was only invented 85 years ago – what did we do for centuries before?).
And best of all for those headed to Maker Faire Bay Area, this weekend you can see it for yourself! Keep that cell phone in your pocket – if you want to know the time you can find Gregory and his timekeeping machine outdoors in the south lot, along with lots of other fun bike projects and activities!
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