Nendo’s out of the box hourglasses explore time passing

Nend's eclectic hourglasses - Picture by Akihiro Yoshida - Courtesy of Nendo.

Nendo’s eclectic hourglasses – All pictures and video by Akihiro Yoshida – Courtesy of Nendo.

Milan 2018 – Nendo has designed eclectic hourglasses carved out from a volume of transparent acrylic which explore our perception of the flow of time. The project will be on show at the Japanese studio’s Forms of Movement solo-exhibition @ Superstudio in Via Tortona 27 – MM2 Porta Genova.

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“An hourglass is a device that has been used since antiquity, and is still being used in our everyday lives. Its shape barely changed over thousands of years.” Explains Nendo’s founder Oki Sato. “With the advent of digital clocks, the hourglass has transitioned from serving a functional role to convey more of a sentimental value, symbolizing the idea of time”.

The studio examined hourglasses’ gravitational mechanism of sand falling through a constricted passage. The final designs are a non-clocks allowing to alter the perception of time passing by altering the speed and the angle.

“In other words, the concept of this collection could be said to be designing time itself”. Explain at Nendo. The designers started from a block of transparent acrylic and crafted the interior cavities by polishing them by hand with fine metal needles tipped with abrasives.

The result is an almost natural, organic appearance, resembling clouds and puddles which convey the feeling that time is moving even more freely than it was before.

TIME DIVIDED – The first hourglass divides 5 minutes in two moments. The sand fills the first cavity in 2 minutes, once the first chamber is filled, sand pours into the second cavity completing the process in 180 seconds.

TIME CONVERTED – Another hour glass plays with the angles of the chambers for 2+1 minutes. On the way going, sand travels down the right paths counting 120 seconds. Once flipped over, it flows back through a larger hole filling the main chamber in just 1 minute.

TIME DOUBLED. Sand falls from the first cavity into the second in 60 seconds. Once the it completely drained from into the lower chamber, flip it over for 2 extra minutes.

TIMES 3. Three puddle-like cavities are left open at the top of the hourglass, depending into which chamber the sand is poured, the same amount of sand can count 1, 2 or 3 minutes.

Nendo’s Form of Movement solo exhibition presents 10 dynamic concepts originating from an object’s function, material or its production process. Special collaborations include works in collaboration with BLANC BIJOU, ELEPHANTECH, INAC, and YKK. All concepts narrate also the manufacturing aspect as well as Nendo’s creative design process.