the frick

Gilt-Brass Table Clock with Astronomical 
and Calendrical Dials (Munich, 1554)

Went to see the clock show with T., hoping he might explain to me how a) clocks work, and also possibly b) how time works.  Not sure if I figured anything out, but it was all quite beautiful, as usual...

I was, for some reason, especially struck by the distinction made (in the exhibit introduction) between a) time-finding, b) time-measuring, and c) time-keeping devices.  In technological terms, this is the evolution from sundials, to water clocks, to mechanical clocks or watches with pendulums, springs, escapements, etc.  There is some kind of analogy here, I think, to the progress of map-making and cartographic data and to the whole idea of information standardization...  It's always good to remember how much of what we think the world "is" and how it "works" is simply a matter of convention.