Sunday, April 21, 2013

Tick Tock

 
I've been reading tons about material culture  and the innumerable ways we as humans relate to the objects around us. While on vacation, and attempting to lose track of time, I read a caption about clocks as an invention by man to make time more concrete. 

Industrialization needed a clock to produce a world of measurable sequences and synchronized action and capitalism depends on regimenting human time and human bodies to succeed.


As mentioned in the caption, all around us timekeeping is ignored. Not only do birds and dogs work by their own rhythms, but figures of the past did also. Knights showed up for duty at sunrise. Siesta happened when the sun was high. Indigenous peoples worked by the lunar cycle. Only contemporary humans seem to concerned with the 'chimes of the hour'.

This caption showed up in my mailbox by chance - a product of a website my daughter subscribed me to called Stumbleupon where you're presented with serendipitous links to all sorts of information.

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