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Niklas Roy is fascinated by the convergence of art and technology. From robotics to gaming systems, the Berlin-based artist and inventor creates quirky yet thought-provoking sculptures and installations that investigate relationships between creativity, science, and tech. His mechanical contraptions are often infused with a lighthearted twist that prompts viewers to think critically and get involved. And his most recent project draws on one of the most fundamental types of technology humans have ever developed: telling time.

“Glashütte Trash Clock” is named for the town in Saxony, Germany, where the artist participated in a residency this year. It’s also the birthplace of the nation’s renowned watchmaking industry. “Glashütte is synonymous with precision and centuries-old watchmaking craft, and I wanted to make the opposite,” Roy says.

The artist only used items and materials he could scrounge up locally, including tape, zip ties, hot glue, cardboard, a yardstick, pieces of plastic, and other random objects. “It runs for about half an hour, features a paperclip-escapement, a glass bottle gong, and a ‘random complication’ (which answers the fundamental question, ‘Now or Never?’).”

For those of us who know a bit less about how timepieces function, an escapement is a tiny mechanism common in pendulum clocks that releases a gear as it moves, helping to advance the hands. The gong is the acoustic instrument you hear, usually struck hourly but sometimes on the half-hour. And the random complication isn’t actually a clock reference at all—it has to do with games and chance. While we perceive the passing of time as steady, predictable, and methodical, the added existential element generates a playful tension and a sense of wonder.

See more of Roy’s work on Instagram.

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