The design team at Japanese watch-maker CITIZEN and paris-based architectural office DGT have collaborated on a magical installation transforming a seemingly ordinary object into what looks like shimmering droplets of suspended rain. What makes the installation tick is 65,000 base plates, the basic component of a watch, which are suspended from the ceiling. The installation is on display at SPIRAL in Tokyo through November 28, 2014.
The installation, titled “LIGHT is TIME,” was originally on display earlier this year at Milan Design Week 2014. And at the time they used 80,000 base plates. A slightly reduced (65,000) version of the installation was then moved to Tokyo where it’s currently on display. These photographs are from earlier this year in Milan so if you go, expect it to be a little different.
The architects explain the inspiration behind the installation LIGHT is TIME:
Light was born at the instant of the Big Bang, the universe’s beginning. From beyond the horizon, the rising Sun slowly covers the Earth in light, shadows transform into different shapes, the seasons transit colours in nature and the waxing and waning of the Moon changes. When humanity noticed these things, we unknowingly created the concept of time.
In the 20th century mankind digitized time, measured it and continued to economize our time, until eventually we forgot about its relationship with essence of light. Without light we never would have had the wonders of the universe, the richness of our planet or the joy and pleasure of our life.
