

What time is it?  - joaopfsilva
http://iprl.wz.cz/
The funny way to know what time it is!!
======
_djo_
This is an art project called 'Standard Time' by Mark Formanek. In late 2007
he filmed a team of 70 workers constructing this clock through 1611 iterations
(every minute) for a 24-hour period in Berlin's Sculpture Park. So when
originally filmed it was done in real-time.

The flash video here is based on a screensaver that Formanek has made
available which synchronises that video to your system clock, making it appear
that you're watching the clock as it's being built. It's a clever idea with
great execution and the effect is interesting enough that a number of
galleries have put screens with the time-synced video on display.

Formanek has since staged a few live re-enactments of this clock being built,
though I'm not sure if any others have gone for the full 24 hours.

There's more info, including videos demonstrating how it was done, at the
official site: <http://www.standard-time.com/>

~~~
ntkachov
>Formanek has since staged a few live re-enactments of this clock being built

I will never understand people that appreciate this kind of art. Call me
classical, but I really don't see watching a clock interesting.

Someone at the Boston MFA made a 24 hr movie where they compile different bits
of film that includes a clock into a real time clock (so if it was 10:23 it
would show 10:23 in a bit of the clip). It was interesting until you realize
that besides being a neat art project, it's really difficult to understand.

~~~
_djo_
I think I understand what Formanek was aiming for with this.

Unlike pre-compiled footage that can just be made 24 hours long, this was done
in real-time with the workers forced to match the demands of the clock without
the opportunity to pause during their shifts.

Because of its real-time nature when you view the video synced to your local
time you can't help but become somewhat invested in the success of the workers
as they struggle to keep up with time and come very close to failing during
some transitions. There's tension generated by the fact that you never know
whether they'll make the next minute.

Then there's the realisation you get after having watched this for a while
that it's really all pointless, that you have become personally invested in
the actions of a bunch of workers struggling to keep up with re-creating one
of the most basic solved problems of the modern world: A clock. It takes 70
workers working all out to do what a cheap watch can do effortlessly.

I suppose that if it succeeds in getting most viewers to think a bit about the
nature of work, time and labour then it achieved its intended purpose.

~~~
excuse-me
Every saturday millions of people invest $100s each and colleges invest
$100millions in finding out which team of people can carry a leather oval from
one end of a field to another.

This is at least novel and at the end of it you have a clock.

~~~
gk1
Everything can be simplified to the point of absurdity.

~~~
scoot
Or to the point that its absurdity becomes apparent.

~~~
jerf
How meta; a post that exemplifies itself.

------
etfb
Is it insanely laggy because it's being Slashdotted/Reddited/Hackernewsed, or
is it just the godawful Tasmanian internet again?

~~~
mokus
I suspect the former - it's laggy here too, and the network here is normally
pretty fast.

~~~
koeselitz
If that's the case, it's been true since 1am this morning. I wonder if it's on
the site's side. I have a feeling it is.

------
blahedo
Argh! I tuned in at 10:52 and wanted to stick around to see the :00
transition, and the player crapped out _just_ at :59, and when I reloaded the
00 had already been switched, and they were just pulling off the pieces to
switch 10 to 11. The next such transition is an hour away!

...wait, how did I get so invested in this?

~~~
lebski88
You could always change your system time.

------
supo
The location seems to be Berlin, but the domain is Czech.

It would be cool to have this in different timezones with corresponding
backgrounds!

------
AlexMuir
And cue the commercials cloned off this.

Absolutely brilliant. I couldn't find any background on it though - looks like
a Czech project?

~~~
marcusf
With the Fernsehturm at Alexanderplatz in the background, I'd rather wager
Berlin?

------
diminish
Didnt have flash can't see on mobile. I am still curious if "creatives" still
got stuck between Adobe and Apple, the two top "creative" tool producers.

------
motiejus
Flash version 9,0 or greater is required You have no flash plugin installed

Download latest version from here

I do _not_ have a flash player on my machine for more than 6 months. This is
the first website I encountered that I cannot use _at all_.

~~~
gaving
Ditto. Flash is dead.

~~~
jarek
If Flash was really dead you wouldn't have bothered posting about how dead it
is.

~~~
jarek
As an example: ActiveX is dead. If this was done in ActiveX, it wouldn't have
gotten any upvotes at all if it was even submitted in the first place, and
most wouldn't have seen it or bothered to point out ActiveX is dead.

------
extension
So is this a clever split frame trick or did they actually spend an entire day
doing that?

EDIT: Actually, the lighting would be really difficult if it was a trick so
I'm going to say it's real.

~~~
blahedo
I thought it was a split frame thing too, but then noticed that they veer into
the tens place pretty frequently and cast shadows. :) (And the other comments
give more details about the original art installation.)

That's not to say that you _couldn't_ do a split-frame thing like this, with a
little bit of cleverness and planning. Even if it were only split around the
middle, that's only 72 transitions to film, which isn't too bad.

------
vanmik
they stole this video from (as well as code for playing it)

<http://esquire.ru/clock>

~~~
gutnor
<http://iprl.wz.cz/> is now apparently displaying some obscene video.

The original(?) on <http://esquire.ru/clock> is working though.

~~~
sal9000
Yes, <http://iprl.wz.cz/> was working yesterday, but now is showing some
random crap. <http://iprl.wz.cz/> is really slow and framed. Please fix the
first one!

------
mikeflynn
Well it appears that it's time for flash to load forever and then make my fan
go crazy.

~~~
koeselitz
Same here. Is this a WebGL thing or something? Three people have sent this to
me today so far, and the site simply doesn't seem to work at all.

------
cbg0
Considering how much work was put into this, the novelty is lost very quickly,
for me at least.

~~~
mmahemoff
Things you only look at for a short time can still have a pervasive impact. I
find art mostly works that way for me at least, and I think that will be the
case here.

------
maw
Pretty sweet how it freezes every two seconds, showing an hourglass. How do
they do that?

------
mike-cardwell
I'd be more impressed if it displayed seconds.

------
zerostar07
Awesome. Closest affordable equivalent is the Stonehenge clock
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH0HLXnXljY>

------
rivo
Looking at this from my office in Berlin, I thought "wow, they're even using
GeoIP and some clever compositing to adjust the background to wherever I am."

~~~
Tomis02
Same here :)

------
herbig
It was awkward when I realized this wasn't linking to the clock anymore and it
had been on my facebook timeline the last three days..

------
X4
WOW That's awesome!

I highly appreciate the vivid art and message behind this creative
construction. We need more crazy people :)

------
marknutter
Time to get a new server

------
daviddaniel
Peanut butter jelly time?

------
rahx
flash.. yawn

------
jdmartinez
Aaaadventure Time!!!

------
joaopfsilva
Really nice work!! and free time to do that ;)

Ya the location seems Czech Republic!! cuz the domain and the builds..i guess

~~~
codesuela
it's Berlin

------
kayman
cool project. Website feels a bit slow. I did something similar recently to
learn coffeescript. <http://currenti.me>

