by j_cavera » Wed Sep 09, 2009 9:23 pm
Just got back today! All things considered, it was a stunning success! I was placed right in front of the DMV, which was a good and bad thing. Good in that I got a lot of visibility and a lot of good feedback. Bad in that the clock was a target for mutant vehicles. It was run into twice, but with almost no damage. I designed it to be able to take that kind of thing. The only result was that the pyramid ended up being about 15 degrees off vertical by Friday. I considered fixing, but it would have required dismantling the entire structure, so I just left well enough alone.
The electronics fared pretty well. I brought two full boxes, one with a large display and one with the display from the laptop. Despite extra cooling, the larger display didn't survive the heat. Fortunately, the backup one did just fine. By Wednesday, I was up and running with deep-cycle batteries that I swapped every 12 hours (though each battery could last for nearly 24).
I got a good deal of excellent feedback on this project. One burner said (as I was swapping batteries) that she had become obsessed with it and checked it many times per day. A number of people said that they regularly used it to set schedules, as in "meet me at the clock sometime around six".
And of course, with all of the time-related art there was some confusion as to what was what. More than once, people thought I was the one behind the pocket watch or the sundial. I'd be interested in knowing if either of those artists were confused for me...
All things considered, it was a great success! Next, it gets cleaned up and the glass on the front of the display gets replaced (looks rather scratched). Then it's off to Arcosanti for Earthdance at the end of this month, a museum of two after that and then in our camp next year.
Oh, and if anyone wants a subjective time clock, let me know.
- Jim