Collecting and conserving are important tasks of a museum, but how does one know which items to include in a collection and which ones to leave out? Using this alarm clock as an example, help us decide what to do with it.
Designer Tian Harlan came up with the idea of showing the time in “Colour Time”. His parents were Veit Harlan and Kristina Söderbaum, the dream couple of the Ufa cinema of the Nazi era. With his colour-segment clocks, which only permit an approximate reading of the time, Tian Harlan wanted to destroy the “tyranny of precise time”.
In contrast with other Colour Time clocks, this alarm clock displays a line for each five-minute segment, making it possible to set the clock precisely. Is this meant to be real-time satire or what? After all, “Colour Time” wanted to come out against the cruel precision of the parent generation.
The Clock Museum already owns three wristwatches and a wall clock with Harlan’s colour-segment display. Enough said in favour of “Colour Time”? Or wouldn’t this alarm clock be a beautiful addition, with its bulbous shape, so typical of the 1970’s?
What do you think? Your vote counts!
Chromachron, the alarm clock with a bulbous shape, Tian Harlan, 1970’s