Can there be such a thing as a metaclock? And if so, would it have to tell metatime?

If there is any hope of answering these questions empirically, we might find it in the Grandpa Clock at Generate. It looks something like an old-fashioned grandfather clock, but it isn’t. Instead, it’s the image of an old clock, printed on canvas with modern clockworks behind the image doing the actual work. The Grandpa Clock looks like an antique, but it’s obviously not trying to be a realistic reproduction; it’s both a timepiece and a commentary on timepieces. It’s hard to look at it without thinking about what you’re looking at, which is a pretty awesome thing for a clock — the most basic of appliances — to accomplish. How far we’ve come from the noble sundial.

–Dan Steckenberg

Glancing at other peoples’ workspaces is a voyeuristic habit of mine, so with NowNow (virtually) publishing desktop//desktop, a study of designers’ desks and their immediate surroundings, I’m tickled pink. If you’re anything like me, you instantly consider about how you would rearrange any or all of the items on a desk, and this site just sent me overboard. Much like the products he designs at ATYPYK, I am more than intrigued by the workspace of Jean Sebastien Ides, although it might be because I’ve never seen an iron, a life-size fake deer, and five images with containing the word “kamasutra” framed in the same picture. A deep-seated extension cord phobia prevents me from falling in love with Robert Bolesta’s work area, but I am naturally drawn to Giuseppe Demaio’s chaos of an office because it reminds me of teenage years when I thought writing on the ceiling and having mismatched pictures of places I’d never been was like, totally friggin’ awesome.

–Stephanie Young