Raspberry Pi, Arduino motor their way to artistic alternative time display

Author: EIS Release Date: Sep 5, 2023

I do like a complicated clock or a tortuous timepiece – displaying a time doesn’t have to be straightforward! So I enjoyed seeing this artistic Raspberry Pi-based alternative time display…

 

 

 

It’s all very conceptual, so no code snippets or cabling requirements follow (it uses a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and Arduino Uno)… It’s more an imaginative objet d’art than a utilitarian clock.

 

The Gadget Master in question is Saralee, and you can read a bit about her creation here. She declares, for example, that time is not a universal truth but is culturally determined… She has Einstein and relativity on her side, of course:

 

 

“This project advocates for challenging dominant narratives of clock time and exploring new ways of measuring time to better understand the world. Just as different maps are available for different purposes, using different projections into the same space, the same can be done with time.”

 

Thanks to the Raspberry Pi team for highlighting this, having bumped into Saralee at a maker event in New York.

 

 

We bumped into @pamsaralee and her Raspberry Pi-powered "alternative clock" at a maker event in Brooklyn.

 

We *insist* you check it out:https://t.co/DniblXcArS pic.twitter.com/FxV14KLgZG

 

— Raspberry Pi (@Raspberry_Pi) June 13, 2023

 

It seems the project samples the current time in seconds, via the Python datetime library (yes, I got a Python mention in!), and then uses that number to get creative with motor control, creating what would be undecipherable displays. Turning a value from one dimension into another.

 

It’s not one for quickly checking if your bus to work is coming!

 

For example, the ‘Clock Manual’ simply suggests picking your own zeitgeber – (definition: any external or environmental cue that entrains or synchronises an organism’s biological rhythms, i.e. what really drives your life) – and customising the program for the different layers or levels of the display, and then enjoy seeing them represented back to you.

 

She writes:

 

“To create a new temporal system, this project utilizes a Raspberry Pi to connect to WiFi and retrieve data from an API using Python. The system is set up in Bash to connect to GitHub and automatically run the program without turning on the GUI. The cloud-derived data is then converted into stepper motor angles and transmitted to an Arduino via a residual communicator. The Arduino controls the stepper motors using C++, resulting in clocks running at different speeds. The new clock necessitates a new cognitive pattern that combines multiple clocks to orchestrate contingent rhythms of an individual’s day. The clocks can be customized to meet the individual’s needs, and the person can switch between systems if necessary.”