Carl Sagan (1934-1996) was an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, science popularizer, and science communicator in astronomy and other natural sciences. He is best known for his work as a science popularizer and communicator (Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (Television series)). His best known scientific contribution is research on extraterrestrial life (SETI Program), including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical messages sent into space: the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them.
The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
The Time Machine is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895 and written as a frame narrative. The work is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposely and selectively forwards or backwards in time. The term “time machine”, coined by Wells, is now almost universally used to refer to such a vehicle.
The Time Machine has been adapted into three feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It has also indirectly inspired many more works of fiction in many media productions.
La Jetée, Chris Marker
A man is a prisoner in the aftermath of World War III in post-apocalyptic Paris, where survivors live underground in the Palais de Chaillot galleries. Scientists research time travel, hoping to send test subjects to different time periods “to call past and future to the rescue of the present”. They have difficulty finding subjects who can mentally withstand the shock of time travel. The scientists eventually settle upon the prisoner; his key to the past is a vague but obsessive memory from his pre-war childhood of a woman he had seen on the observation platform (“the jetty”) at Orly Airport shortly before witnessing a startling incident there. He did not understand exactly what happened, but knew he had seen a man die.
After several attempts, he reaches the pre-war period. He meets the woman from his memory, and they develop a romantic relationship. After his successful passages to the past, the experimenters attempt to send him into the far future. In a brief meeting with the technologically advanced people of the future, he is given a power unit sufficient to regenerate his own destroyed society.
Upon his return, with his mission accomplished, he discerns that he is to be executed by his jailers. He is contacted by the people of the future, who offer to help him escape to their time permanently; but he asks instead to be returned to the pre-war time of his childhood, hoping to find the woman again. He is returned to the past, placed on the jetty at the airport, and it occurs to him that the child version of himself is probably also there at the same time. He is more concerned with locating the woman, and quickly spots her. However, as he rushes to her, he notices an agent of his jailers who has followed him and realizes the agent is about to kill him. In his final moments, he comes to understand that the incident he witnessed as a child, which has haunted him ever since, was his own death.
Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!
Alice to Wonderland of the unconscious (French)
Lewis Carroll
Dali, Soft watches
The Persistence of Memory
La Persistance de la mémoire
Exhibition, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2012-2013 (movie in French)
Mapping time, the space of a moment
How to represent time without using animation? The figuration of time has been present in various forms in cartography since time immemorial and all over the world. If today time is mainly represented by animated maps – which corresponds to the possibilities offered by computer techniques -, other modes of representation have existed. In this article, we wish to revive the possibility of representing time through a succession of still images.
French article
Why to measure the time?
RTS Archive (French)
Why to measure the time?
What is an atomic clock?
What are atomic clocks used for?
What accuracy for atomic clocks?
Spring morning at the observatory
The Dipper
Field Trip Berlin | 11–15.02.2019
Organisation: Miriam Koban, Peter Kessel, Robert Lzicar
It was a wonderful trip. Beautiful encounters with committed and passionate creatives. A generous organisation, a huge thank you to Miriam, Robert and especially Peter for this creative and beautiful week 😉
Artist Andrea
https://cargocollective.com/Andrea-WallgrenGerichtshöfe
https://www.gerichtshoefe.de/
ArtLoftBerlin
https://artloft.berlin/
Druckbar Wedding
https://druckbarwedding.com/
Mirage Bistrot
http://mirage.berlin/
Jochen Küpper
https://www.creative-city-berlin.de/de/ccb-magazin/2018/8/28/jochen-kupper-urban-art-week/
The World Clock (Weltzeituhr), also known as the Urania World Clock is a large turret-style world clock located in the public square of Alexanderplatz in Mitte, Berlin. By reading the markings on its metal rotunda, the current time in 148 major cities from around the world can be determined. Since its erection in 1969, it has become a tourist attraction and meeting place. In July 2015, the German government declared the clock as a historically and culturally significant monument.
The clock was designed by the designer Erich John, who at the time was an employee of the planning group for the transformation of Alexanderplatz under the direction of Walter Womacka. Before designing the clock and managing its construction, John was a lecturer at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee, where he taught product design. The idea to erect a clock in Alexanderplatz was had when the wreckage of the Uraniasäule (a.k.a. Wettersäule), a pre-World War II public clock, was found during the restoration of the square in 1966.
The construction of the clock required more than 120 engineers and other experts, including the sculptor Hans-Joachim Kunsch; the Getriebefabrik Coswig company was also instrumental in its construction. In Germany at the time, there was no widely recognized design award, so John did not receive one for his work. However, he received a design award for a different design of his in 1982.
In 1987, a commemorative coin was released with the image of the World Clock. In 1997, the cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were added to the clock during a necessary repair to the mechanism – when it was erected, the cities were omitted due to the political sensibilities surrounding the nation of Israel of the time. Two cities which had changed their names since the clock was erected were also changed: Leningrad (to Saint Petersburg) and Alma Ata (to Almaty).
