How else can we visualise time? This project gathers a series of designed clocks that have been iterated over a number of years. In response to a clocks traditional function to display the 'now', these clocks instead measure and keep time in a tangible way, bringing the past and the present together in one object. By using a standard clock mechanism to wind thread on, or pull thread through, the thread visualises the time since the clock was started, accumulating slowly, and gathering meaning as time goes on.

Grandmother Clock (2004) contains a hundred years of thread and measures a human lifetime. Time is a length of thread pulled through a wind-up clock mechanism at the rate of 30 centimetres per day. The thread falls into a glass-fronted case to indicated the time past. Taking inspiration from the 1876 song "My Grandfathers Clock" by Henry Clay Work (about a clock that mirrors a person in height and weight and lifespan), the Grandmother Clock is five feet tall, like my own Grandmother. After inheriting a box of cotton reels after she died, I made this clock was a way to explore how time can become physical and serve as a memory of a person.

Timekeeper (2008) was commissioned for the exhibition Nowhere Now Here at the Laboral Centre de Arte in Gijon, Spain. It is a clock that spins and ‘grows’ time into a cocoon, and records any amount of time - from a lifetime to a relationship, a meaningful event or a promise. The cocoon is fed by cotton reels, and turns once daily. Over the years the Timekeeper accumulates a personal narrative and emotional value specific and unique to its owner.

Timekeeper (2015) was made as a limited edition of 100 pieces and sold online from its own web-shop. It reimagined the Timekeeper (2008) in simpler, more affordable materials, and added an interactive element, where users could personalise who or what was being measured, and change the colour of the thread to reflect milestones in life. It was a popular object for weddings, births and anniversaries - the website offering the ability to pre-wind time on, for a significant celebration.

• Quin, Corinne. 2014. Timekeeper Clock (2015). [Design]
• Quin, Corinne. 2013. Grandmother Clock, Timekeeper. In: "O’clock. Time Design, Design Time", CAFA Art Museum, China, 7 March - 10 April 2013. [Show/Exhibition]
• Quin, Corinne. 2012. Grandmother Clock, Timekeeper. In: "O’clock. Time Design, Design Time", Triennale Museum, Milan, Italy, 11 October 2011 – 8 January 2012. [Show/Exhibition]
• Quin, Corinne. 2009. Timekeepers. In: "Nowhere/Now/Here: investigating new lines of enquiry in contemporary design.", LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijon, Spain, 9 October 2008 - 27 April 2009. [Show/Exhibition]
• Quin, Corinne. 2011. Grandmother Clock, Timekeeper. In: Sivia Annicchiarico and Jan Van Rossem, eds. O'Clock: Time Design, Design Time. Milan: Electa, pp. 58-59. ISBN 9788883188725 [Book Section]
• Quin, Corinne. 2008. Timekeepers (2008). In: Rosario Hurtado and Roberto Feo, eds. Nowhere, now, here: investigating new lines of enquiry in contemporary design. Gijon, Spain: LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, pp. 240-241. ISBN 9788461266746 [Book Section]

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/35129