Liberating clocks: Exploring other possible futures

Abstract

This paper suggests that alongside concerns regarding the future of precision timekeeping, there is also a need to discuss the future of timekeeping in social life. Pointing to the way that maps are created to fit a range of different user needs, I ask whether methods of telling the time might also be made more open to experimentation and redesign. In order to provide examples of how this could be done, I draw together a range of projects by artists and designers who are using clocks in unexpected ways. Looking at examples that particularly focus on social aspects of environmental issues, I show how the clock can be a useful tool for highlighting alternative ways of keeping time. Drawing on work in temporal design, developed in collaboration with designers Larissa Pschetz and Chris Speed, this paper suggests a new development in the field of horology, towards a critical horology that emphasises the political, social and environmental aspects of timekeeping.