Clocks keep track of time for us, changing the sense of time from a subjective experience, relative to the seasons and connected to personally meaningful events, to an objective, measurable one that is impersonal and the same for everyone. It is difficult to go through a day without seeing a clock. We've placed them everywhere--from the tops of towers, to office walls, to computer screens, to our wrists. That fact makes the subject of timepieces a rewarding site for reflective design.
Rationalized time can be helpful in situations where groups need to coordinate their actions, but it is an impersonal metric. Can a clock be designed to measure a more personal sense of time?
The Heartbeat Clock is a design which would attempt to answer this question by substituting the user's heartbeat (or perhaps that of someone close to the user) for more traditional timekeeping methods. A similar design might be based on breath. Time in a panic would pass more quickly than that when the user is relaxed and quiet.
The Net Worth Clock represents a probe into the consequences of realigning timekeeping. We commonly value time in terms of dollars and cents. Why not make this method of quantification explicit by designing a clock to measure it?
This clock would display the user's net worth in real time, with adjustments made as hours are worked or bills paid. It would be as portable as possible, so that the user might watch his progress conveniently.
This clock borders on the speculative, given the requirement of data collection. However, it is useful in that it asks us to imagine life as a situation in which we really can keep score. Is such a scenario appealing? "Time is money", suggests the clock; it may make consumers more aware of how their purchases are causing them to spend their time, but it may also reinforce a sense that, in fact, both time and economic activity are best summed up in terms of quantity, not quality. How might we, as designers, promote or prevent abuse of such a clock--or should we? One option might be to design such a clock to track other accumulations of "value", for example the amount of time a user spends on volunteer activities.
Commodification
Context
Control
Efficiency
Irrationality of Rationality
Quantifiability
