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Time

Clocks in the City

Before the rise of smartphones and similar digital gadgets, people in different cities often relied on station clocks, clocks in shops, clock towers, and bell towers of religious buildings for telling time and scheduling duties and events. Some clocks are still working properly but some are in poor condition. Some are under the threat of removal, while others are well-maintained or given a new lease of life. For example, the clock tower in Tsim Sha Tsui ‘regained’ its voice only in December 2021, 71 years after it last tolled. Clocks in the city could be symbolic on both personal and societal levels: for they give people a sense of the city’s pulse and dynamics while serving as constant reminders of the passage of time and its associated limitations.

How it works

1
Select an area in your city, and try to spot and observe as many clocks as possible.
2
Survey the kinds of clocks you see. For each clock, take photos and mark its location.
3
Consider the following:
  1. Do you refer to any of the clocks that you selected for this task to tell time? Do your selected clocks make any sound? If so, what does it sound like (bells, digital, music)? Make a recording if possible.
  2. Do you think these clocks still serve the community or the district these days?

Example

Photo by Vanessa Yeung: Tsim Sha Tsui clock tower
Photo by Vanessa Yeung: Tsim Sha Tsui clock tower
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Photo by Vanessa Yeung: Almirante Lacerda Market ‘Red Market’ in Macau
and its newly installed clock
Photo by Vanessa Yeung: Rado clock on the platform of Mong Kok Station
Photo by Vanessa Yeung: Rado clock on the platform of Mong Kok Station
Photo by Vanessa Yeung: Causeway Bay Times Square
Photo by Vanessa Yeung: Causeway Bay Times Square