The 24-hour timepiece beautifully designed to change the way you see your day.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
this button
over 4 years ago
– Sun, Aug 11, 2019 at 10:28:16 PM
Hello there, what follows is a quick share of a few things happening in Scott Thriftlandia.
THE TRILOGY OF BUTTONS
I received the buttons for this and they look so good that I had to show you.
The Trilogy of Time Buttons
GLASS SAMPLES
So I received the glass samples and guess what, they messed it up. But it's okay! I was able to clarify things and they are making another round. I am in need of the finished samples to photograph these things for the campaign. It's cutting it close but I have confidence that I will have the correct glass by the end of the month.
The issue was that they flat out did not follow the drawing I commissioned them to create. Thankfully they are correcting the error without charging me again.
I'm slightly reticent to post this picture because of the crummy bottom lip of the print. Also the glass doesn't quite fit and it's far too bulbous for this size.
Prototype - Work in Progress
MACHINED ALUMINUM PRODUCTION SAMPLES
These pieces are slated to arrive this week. I'm sure there will be some issues with it but I am hoping they are attractive enough to photograph for the campaign.
Maybe I should not post the actual designs...well, here they are..again, if you get a good production price let me know!
ATTENTION LONDONERS
New Scientist Live
I will be exhibiting at this year's New Scientist Live conference at Excel in east London the weekend of October 10-13th. I will be promoting my Time in Color Kickstarter campaign there which will be live during the conference. My reasoning for exhibiting is that 40,000 like-minded science curious people will pass by booth #848 over four days.
It's the first time I will be doing anything like this. I'm going to have a very simple set up with a tablet where people can back the campaign on the spot. It's hard to put in words how thrilled I am to have the opportunity to talk for four days straight about Time in Color.
Actually, I'm considering adding the U to color for this event just to make sure it's not the focus of every conversation I have with my English brothers and sisters lol.
LIKEMINDS CONFERENCE
The day before I launch the campaign on September 23rd I will be giving the longest talk of my career at the Likeminds conferencein upstate New York. I've been asked to put Time in Color into context in a half-hour to an audience of 300 likeminded creatives. It's the fourth year of the conference and this year's theme is TIME.
I will be giving the talk on September 22nd which coincidently is the day I turn 40.
You won't find Time in Color in there, they invited me to speak after making this gif.
A FEEL GOOD STORY
Someone who lives with ThePresent in Seattle scheduled a video chat with me and you can too!
I want you to know what she said because you are a part of this story too.
This woman, who we will call Sarah, moved to Seattle from Ohio to work for Google. Her mother is still getting used to her being so far away. Sarah had been living with ThePresent and decided to buy one for her mother's birthday. Sarah got me on the line to tell me that her mother will often snap a picture of ThePresent and text it to Sarah in Seattle asking,"Is the hand in the same place on your present?" And of course it is and Sarah always sends her mom a photo of where the hand is on her timepiece.
I was deeply moved to hear this and had to walk away from the camera to collect myself.
There we are!
I could have never imagined ThePresent facilitating such a beautiful connection. You see, the distance from Ohio to Seattle on a cosmic scale is nothing. Through the point of view of ThePresent, that mother and daughter are practically right next to each other. Furthermore, every person on planet Earth is connected in the same way through ThePresent. ThePresent is the local time of planet Earth. It's time on Earth from the point of view of the Sun.
What a story huh? Wow, I mean that right there makes whatever challenges I've faced in producing these timepieces intensely worth it. It's stories like these that remind me how important it is to make these experiences more accessible. Do you have a similar story? Please consider reaching out and letting me know.
SPEAKING OF THE CENTER OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
Check out this actual photograph of the Sun. It's an astonishing perspective taken with a solar scope.
Andy McCarthy // Instagram @cosmic_background
AN 'OLD' VIDEO OF ME
This is not required viewing by any means. It's just a presentation I gave in 2012 as I was in the middle of production of the first batch of 2000 ThePresent pieces. I left the company I started a year after this to focus on this new adventure which has become Time in Color. It's an adventure that feels like it's starting to move into full swing. I'm sharing this to offer more comprehensive context for where this is all coming from. That said, my insights and motivations have evolved a great deal since then. This talk is about how three technological innovations changed my life. From The Legend of Zelda to Non-Linear editing and ThePresent each breakthrough is deeply related to time.
Let's see if we can hit a total of 50 views! It's currently at 49 ;-)
RICH SOUNDS
The sounds inside this 3:35 song never cease to amaze me. "My Old Man" written and performed in 1971 by Joni Mitchell. This song stokes a desire within me to study music to fully understand what exactly is happening inside this song. For me, it's less about the actual lyrics which are great, it's the arrangement itself that sounds otherworldly. I try to listen to it and pretend I don't know English just so I can hear it purely as a sonic event. I keep saying wow out loud as it shifts so effortlessly through such a rich palette of wonder. Here is another short gem of a song you may have not heard before. The line that is hard to hear is "One chocolate milkshake with two straws stuck in it."
A SIMPLE EXPLANATION OF MEDITATION
Pretty great insight in just 1:42. You've got to give that monkey mind something to do.
DON'T GIVE UP
Take care of your self out there.
I will be back in touch when I have pictures of the production samples. Here is one more of the button!
this hour.
almost 5 years ago
– Mon, Jul 29, 2019 at 02:20:50 AM
Thank you for sharing such enthusiastic and thought provoking points of view. I'm so glad I did not overthink it and simply followed the intuition to share the insight with you. After posting that last update and reading the response, I made a one hour prototype of this the next day.
THE PROCESS OF CONFIRMING VALUE
This video is a quick time-lapse of the hour into 02:42 with me talking about defeating my inner critic and confirming the value of this idea.
The following update is both a description of what I intend to make and a brief inquiry into the implications of a one hour timepiece for the benefit of society. Here we have still photos of hand transforming over time.
fifteen minutes
thirty minutes
forty-five minutes
one hour
EXPERIENCING this
I've lived with this for a little over a week now and already have conviction that this deserves its place in the trilogy. I love this. I eventually want the wall clock, the desk clock and the wristwatch of this.
this gives you license to be present within the hour.
It is right up there with T O D A Y and ThePresent in its ability to reframe your perception of time.
ThePresent is one year.
T O D A Y is one day.
this is one hour.
this transcends every hour you've ever experienced because it removes the ability to see this one hour from outside of itself. For example, this is not the fourthhour between the third hour and preceding the fifth hour, this points only to this hour.
this removes the hour from a counting ritual and places it into a silent honor ritual; putting you in touch with the profound simplicity of a cyclical perception of the hour. I cannot wait to invite you to experience a single hour liberated from every other hour. I can't wait to hear the stories of you catching up with an old friend while this gently frames the tides of the hour. As Julia so elegantly put it in the comments, "a slow flow in and a slow flow out." Indeed.
this makes it clearer to me than ever that the fundamental disconnect between the planet and society is caused in large part by the inherent limitations of the current industrial era point of view on time. We have a culture that is desperately trying to live in the moment and missing the hour, the day and the year in the meantime.
For everyone who responded so strongly, I hear you and I believe that this is what the culture needs to snap out of our short term perception of reality. this lifts us into a higher conscious awareness of time. To think that the story that brought ThePresent to life would lead to developing T O D A Y and now this, wow.
3D RESIN PRINT // Missing the etched QR Code of Serial/Signature
PRODUCTION UPDATE
Above you will find two photos of the front and back 3D Printed prototype of this.
Missing from the photos:
Production samples of (3) curved and (3) flat glass arrive this week. I have not made up my mind about the shape of the glass in this form factor.
Three production-ready samples of the bead-blasted grey anodized machined aluminum body have been ordered and will be in our hands by mid-August.
IN ADDITION TO THE DESK MODEL, WILL YOU MAKE A WALL CLOCK AND WATCH FORthis?
Almost certainly, it's only a question of when.
If I place the prototype on my wrist it almost feels like a watch. SEE BELOW!
I don't want to rush things. I already have a lot happening with the desk clock and I can see the wall clock taking a bit longer to organize.
That said, I cannot stop thinking about a watch for this and I want to be wearing it all the time right now. I will still launch on Monday, September 23rd. However, I am beginning to feel that the momentum should be focused back on this. There is a bit of time to consider the watch and I may produce a small batch of one-hundred wristwatches to get a good round of feedback before launching a watch specific campaign. this feels so new and I don't want to act impulsively, I'm grateful that these timepieces have forced me to consider the value of patience.
So we will see what happens together.
It's amazing that I could not see that this was an hour until a handful of tiny insights were enough to cause a creative avalanche. Again though, I do want to go on public record with some initial designs of a one hour wrist watch. You saw it here first as the next logical step on the journey that has become Time in Color; a trilogy of clocks that reveal the full spectrum of time on Earth.
ThePresent is Earth from the point of view of the sun.
T O D A Y is Earth from the point of view of the clouds.
this is Earth from the point of view of this hour of your life.
These devices play out more like compasses than clocks, reorganizing your awareness of time to match the scale of the human spirit.
prototype one hour watch called this.
Thank you for taking a look and again, thank you for your feedback. It's been a remarkable journey so far and I've spent a lot of the past week asking myself if this is real. Then I look up and see the prototype and remember when I only had one prototype of ThePresent.
Not only is this real, this is happening this fall!
I'm beside myself thinking about how this will help foster a healthier relationship with time. I'll be in touch again soon with photos of curved glass vs. flat glass for your feedback on both.
In time,
Scott Thrift
Scott Thrift seen here thinking about this.
Sharing an insight + a beautiful gift.
almost 5 years ago
– Wed, Jul 17, 2019 at 10:20:13 PM
I've just landed (in the last hour) on a new way of seeing this.
to refresh your memory
It made sense for me to make this another 24-Hour timepiece but after long consideration and helpful insights in comments and emails directly from you, I realize the 24-Hour speed may have simply been a placeholder.
What's so special about the design of this is that the middle grey hand activates a part of your brain that alters your perception before your eyes; changing the perceived value of dark and light according to the background.
Seeing this change is integral to comprehending the inner peace of the piece. If one were able to experience that perceptual shift more rapidly it would balance out the ultra-zen of 50,000 shades of grey.
So now I am seeing that this could be one hour.
The same face, same hand, same idea just one single hour. That means that within one hour you will see the hand appear DARK at the top and LIGHT at the bottom as it transforms completely every thirty minutes.
At its most fundamental It is within this hour that you can find wonder in being able to perceive your very own ability to perceive.
ThePresent = 365 Days T O D A Y = 24 Hours this = 1 hour
That makes more sense, right?
Off the cuff copy
this is an hour.
this is an hour for meditation.
this is an hour for therapy.
this is an hour for fitness.
this is an hour for what matters the most to you.
this hour is worth your time.
also,
If you planned to back the delightfully handy pen from the design duo CW&T now is the time!
The first project I backed on Kickstarter was CW&T's, Pen Type A in the summer of 2011.
The beautifully machined pen and case came complete with a charming no-nonsense video that inspired me to reach out. Their studio was just down the street here in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. They wound up backing my own initial Kickstarter project, ThePresent in October of 2011.
They just launched their tenth Kickstarter project! Pen Type-C.
It is their final installment in their Pen Type Series and it's gorgeous. I hope you will consider pledging for this new elegant piece.
As you know I am also coming full circle with my own trilogy of pieces, Time in Color.
Indeed, I intended to launch on April 22nd but I wasn't being honest with myself. I was rushing. That is the thing I am trying not to do, in general. Posting the last update was the wake up call I needed, thank you for commenting. Before I go into detail I want to make it clear one more time why I love the outrageously subtle nature of 'this'.
Isn't 'this' just TODAY in black and white?
Yes, this is a 24-Hour clock just like TODAY. However, I think calling it a 'black and white version of TODAY' disregards the most exciting element of 'this'.
The hand is painted 'middle grey'. That means that at the 6am and 6pm locations, the hand 'disappears'. As the hand moves into the day, it gradually darkens and as it moves into night it lightens. This is not a camera trick, it is a phenomenological peculiarity of human perception and it is the key design element of this.
This, ahem, this video shows you exactly what happens to the hand as it travels through time.
this is a timepiece that renews the spirit of an ancient symbol of Yin-Yang, for our own time. It's a timepiece that portrays the most subtle natures of both non-duality and change with poetic balance. this fits beautifully into what is now apparently, a trilogy.
