She is a star: our sun defines our seconds, minutes, days, years and ages. She provides us with energy and powers our functioning. Unlike the sun, our current system is rational: numbers represent time. We get further away from the function of time which was to visualise where we are in our day. What if we could view time in a different manner?
What is it?
Dutch designer Jeroen Timmer believes that human well-being is influenced by the presence of the sun. Knowing how much light we have left makes for more efficient use of the sun’s power. For the Dutch Design Week in 2022, Jeroen made Shinetime. This clock shows the amount of light you still have left that day instead of hours and minutes. Much different from our ever-the-same clocks, this installation is dynamic: it moves with the seasons.
The designer feels that our current time system is rigid. He wants to make people aware of the power that they let time have over them. Time should be a tool, not an enemy.
Why is it cool?
Timmer’s design shows time in a different way. A new perception of being challenges our traditional relationship with time. Shinetime moves along with nature automatically which makes us aware of the sun and its role in our lives. We can now move with the seasons.
Why does it have future potential?
We have become distant from our roots in a sense. Designs like this one make way for a future with more connection to nature. Perhaps we can break free from our stress-filled busy lives and be more in tune with our surroundings. Our world is already hectic, let’s calm down and recharge with our sun. Take a break to appreciate her warmth and presence. Finding peace in the sun can make us come closer to ourselves as human beings on planet earth. This clock can provide us with all this. Are you ready to discover the beauty of sunlight?
6 comments
Very creative and, one way or the other, I find this ‘tender’. don’t ask me why. It’s so fresh and beautiful, like a new baby. Maybe I get carried away :-). Thanks. Fenne.
Clever and catchy title Fenne, after reading this Cool seed, it just feels like it lightend up my day. I think many feel the same experience 😉 good work!
i think it is a cool idea if it is cheap people will buy if it is expensive people will not
It’s cool. It reminds me that there is no more light or time left so that you must need to work harder if you still have something important stuff to do today. And how to promote to market , who is the final customer, maybe it’s a challenge.
Thanks for your sharing, it really inspired me.
Perhaps, the intensity of light, the color of light, could be automatically update according to the GPS Location. Even the customer can choose their favorite place to set the “Clock”, such as Netherland or Greenland or Iceland, I wanna see the colorful Northern Lights.
Wow, that would be incredible!
This is a cool theory in practice. It would probably be best to teach this concept in schools, to kids so that they can begin to see time differently and help forge new ideas and ways of perceiving time. Nice one!