Timekeeper Design Analysis

Week 2

Kornak Sun Temple, Sundial

I started this week’s assignment by going back to our class discussions and thinking about the different timekeeping devices we talked about. I also tried searching for various other interesting timekeeping devices online to find something that interested me. During this process, I did think about the discussion we had in class about how we keep track of time in the smallest units now and wondered how often we actually need to measure time in seconds. Does it constantly put us in a state of urgency to measure time in such small units?

This made me think about the timekeeping devices and methods of the past and also how my grandparents used to be able to tell the approximate hour of the day just by looking at the position of the sun and how they were satisfied with only knowing the approximate hour.

I found an interesting example of a sundial from the Kornak Sun Temple in India. The temple was dedicated to the Sun god, Surya. The temple has a form of a 100 feet chariot and the wheels of the temple is used to calculate the time.

I found it very interesting that the time on the wheels were anti-clockwise, different from the clocks we see everyday. The 24 hours of the day is divided into 8 parts (3 hour period) by larger spokes and each of these 3 hour periods is divided into 2 by thinner spokes. The border of the week are lined with beads. Each bead equal to 3 minutes. The beads are large enough to see the position of the shadow falling on them, so even the 3 minutes could be divided further with our visual judgment.

To tell time using this wheel, you place your finger on the tail of the animal in the axel, you can tell the time based on where your shadow falls on the edge of the wheel. I found a video explaining how the wheel works and have linked it here. [link]

I really loved the visual hierarchy from larger to smaller units of time. I would imagine, for me personally, that on a lazy sunday, I would be happy with the time the larger spikes tell me but for a busy day, I would appreciate knowing the the time with minutes.

The difference in how this sundial was designed and how time is divided and measured using this device made me think of the different ways different communities keep track of time. I find it interesting how the way people belonging to different communities measure time and how they use it to celebrate, keep traditions and remember important events. How this helps create these shared experiences and connections among the different members of these communities in a world we live in different parts of the world.

I started by looking into the Tamil Calendar (my native language) and how the Tamil diaspora around the world celebrate events and remember important dates based on the Tamil calendar. I would love to learn more about how the way different communities measure/keep track of time help in creating shared experiences and connections. Since my thesis would be on the topic of building connections through shared values and experiences, I would love to explore this topic more and look for inspiration for my thesis work

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