Let’s break the rules of the classic clock 3.
Creativity by analysis
I believe filling out a matrix can be a source of creating new things: you only have to choose the right matrix.
It begins with finding patterns in the existing things, eg. find patterns in the clocks that already exist. By finding patterns I mean to identify a rule that describe the clocks properly. Eg. all the clocks have two hands. When I identify a rule, I try to be sure that the rule is strong so there is no exception. If there is an exception, eg. I found a clock with three hands, the rule is either not good enough, or I already found a way of creating new things. Well, this rule is not good enough, there are plenty of clocks with three hands, so I update the rule to say that all the clocks have two or three hands. OK, this is the case in general, so the rule is quite good. But I already found some rare cases when the clock has only one hand. So I have to go further and update the rule with either rephrasing the rule (a clock has one, two or three hands) or try to identify an additional rule with which I could cover the clocks with the one hand. Finding an additional rule in this case is better, because the majority of the clocks has really two or three hands, so there must be something else to explain the existence of the clocks with only one hand. This “must be something else” is rather a gut feeling, not a fact. So I go on and try to identify additional rules.
This goes on and on, I’m looking for patterns and rules, check them if they are strong enough through looking for exceptions. If I do not find exception that means the rule describes the current things correctly. So if I can break the rule, it will result something new. Easy to say. Leaving the patterns and breaking the rules is risky, it might lead to a solution which is hardly usable. But going on and on this process of decomposition and construction can lead to (or at least inspire) new solutions.
This process is also called attribute listing in the book 101 Creative Problem Solving Techniques by James M. Higgins — which proves that the idea itself is not new.
Dials with rotational symmetry, but not circles
So I go on with breaking the rules of the classic clock, see previous articles here and here. One of the strongest pattern of clocks is that the dial has a circle shape. Sometimes instead of the circle it has an arch shape (part of a circle), but the arch is not a continuous line in the sense that the circle has no free ends (you do not have to raise your finger when you go around again and again), while an arch has two ends. So the updated rule says that when the line of the dial has no free ends, the shape of the dial is a circle. Now let’s break this one.
Digitization made it possible to get rid off the circle. As there is no limitation of mechanics anymore which would require that the hands show from one central point and go around forming a circle, the scale does not have to be a circle anymore.
The following figure shows scales that are not circles, though still keep its concentric nature. The hands on these examples also have to have a different format then the classic one.
The next one goes even further: the minute dial keeps its original circle shape, while the hours are represented on three associating circular arcs resulting in an interesting shape that is rotational symmetric.
Scale that is not even rotational symmetric
Dhali painted clocks that look like they are melted and time flows away, their clockface is not concentric anymore — although these clockfaces were classic concentric clockfaces before the imaginary melting. The same goes for the clocks inspired by Dhali’s pictures.
On below clockface the hour scale is mirror symmetric, but not rotational symmetric, and the minute scale is a classic circle.
On the next the hour scale looks like the crescending Moon, its inner arc representing the night hours, while the outer arc is for the daylight part. The intersection of the inner and outer arcs can be either fixed, like on this example, where the night hours are between 8 in the evening and 8 in the morning. But it could also change day by day and represent the actual sunrise and sunset time.
On the next one the hour scale is not symmetric but is constructed in a way that daylight part of the scale is a circular arc, while the night part is a V shape, thus separating the two periods of the day.
The next example has lost the symmetric nature of the classic clockface completely. This scale is designed to cut the day into important life units: sleeping hours, commuting, working hours, evening rest.
To be continued…
