I and the Universe
Posted on October 18, 2008
| Filed Under Paparazzi |
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I love the patina and colors of this old timepiece, but what I find even more fascinating is the allusion to the “ecliptic”, the orientation of earth as she travels the solar-system // universe, seems to be mirrored in the tilt of the clock in this photo.
Very timely!
Best to all — Em
http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com
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This is soooooo cool! What makes this such a wonderful picture is the photographer’s perspective. The clock is beautiful in its own right; but the picture’s perspective makes you go “WOW”.
This is awesome!
Worth several moments enjoying contemplation of this construction.
What have we got here:
an outer ring of 24 hourly segments, labelled in an early script (can any one date that script?);
an middle ring of two 12 hour segments, labelled in Roman numerals, offset from the outer ring and shaded from sun-lit gold to night-time blue, with grey dawn and sunset;
an inner half-ring of one twelve segment arc (perhaps the months?), labelled in modern Arabic numbers;
a floating (perhaps?) ring of twelve Zodiac symbols.
I can only imagine how the clockwork manipulates all these registers against one another. I am reminded of the complex geo-centric models the pre-Galileo astronomers (Kepler, Ptolomy, Copernicus, I think) contructed to explain the apparent retrograde motion of some constellations as they moved “around the earth” … or a now-anachronistic circular slip stick from my youth.
One other note: from the photographer’s vantage point, the perspective makes the top numbers appear to be smaller than those closer, at the bottom. The folks who designed the Taj Mahal (and perhaps other monumental edifices which had a message several lines long carved into the tall pillars) solved this distortion by making the top letters larger. Standing in front of the mausoleum, the message appears to be all of one “font.”
I am constantly amazed at the talent out there. What I really love about this site and the idea of paparazzi and art underground is the idea of showcasing talent. This is an incredible picture. I just absolutely love the perspective and the clock and the incredible workmanship is captured beautifully.