Control and Consciousness of Time Web

Incense has been used for timekeeping in China and Japan for centuries, constituting a different, olfactory way of experiencing time. Lighting a stick of incense when welcoming someone at the door is a gentle way to signal that one has (or has not yet) overstayed their welcome. The more intricate incense clock originated in China in the Song Dynast... See more

The hourglass is particularly interesting, since unlike most other methods of measuring time, it presents the present as between the past (sand collected in the bottom bulb) and the future (sand yet to flow through the neck). Compared to sundials, which calibrate a moment in time against an external reference point, this method creates a conscious ... See more

When Roman war hero Valerius Maximus Messalla brought back a sundial from Catania after capturing the city in 263 BC, the crowds cheered—but this symbolic triumph over the Sicilian city soon became an ironic triumph over the lives of Roman citizens. The foreign timekeeping device, installed in the Roman Forum, heralded many more that were soon erec... See more