One Dimensional Clock

This is a p5 sketch that flattens a clock from a two-dimensional space into a one-dimensional line. The result is a “hand” that most significantly moves from 9 to 3 and back again, rather than from 12 around to 12. In a sense, it simulates a view of a clock from the top looking towards the bottom (or vice versa).

The center dot is the 12 (and the 6), the left and right sides are the 9 and 3. The hour “hand” is blue, the minute “hand” is red, and when they occupy the same space the dot is magenta.

It is obviously difficult to use this to tell time (for a few different reasons) but it does create some interesting scenarios by breaking the clock up into segments and making “time” (or the time-telling elements) run in multiple directions. Our sense of time is informed by our vision of it. Analog clocks and digital clocks have different ways of communicating time to us, and as a result we treat them differently. This particular clock is much more about the passage of time than it is about finding one’s particular location in it.

Here, the significance of some stretch of day from 9am to 3pm is highlighted. This is a clock that might model a 6-hour workday. The 9am to 3pm selection is because of how I perceived the 2D clock, but it’s also possible to imagine the 1D clock running from 8am to 2pm or 11am to 5pm, etc.