https://newbooksnetwork.com/yulia-frumer-making-time-astronomical-time-measurement-in-tokugawa-japan-u-chicago-press-2018 | New Books Network | Yulia Frumer, "Making Time: Astronomical Time…
An early time machine, the Antikythera mechanism was found by divers off the coast of a Greek island in 1901. The mechanism is dated between 200 B.C. and 87 B.C. and considered by some to be the first analogue computer known so far. Reconstructed from 82 fragments, the mechanism itself consists of 37 gear wheels, which followed the movements of the Sun and Moon throughout the sky, correctly accounting for the Moon’s irregular orbit, and calculated eclipse cycles. Inscriptions on the gear wheels reference the Saros cycle, Metonic spiral, and the zodiac. The mechanism not only measures astronomical time, but its gear system actually utters a complex, mechanical grammar of correspondence to orbiting bodies, already replete with horoscopic narratives. Correspondence was deeply tied to the practice of early astronomy. From the association of emerald gems with Mercury to recognition of planetary hours, astronomical measurement was not separate from but also an aesthetic task, which cultivated incredibly resilient symbols.
Today, a dominant experience of time is translated from orbiting planetary bodies to corresponding regulation in digital machines, which keep our devices in constant, unprecedented sync; mobile devices are an expression of the medium of time that enforces its serialization. There was a possibility for our devices to derive their initial logic from elsewhere. Rather than skeuomorphic telephones, these portable circuits, liquid, and glass might have become the explicit wayfinding tools of earlier designs for companion devices.
Instead of regressing into nostalgia for surveillance prototypes, is it still possible to think through a new logic of companion devices? Their connection rhythmic over only call and response, through alignment of time or its disappearance altogether: the Great De-Sync.