“Now Now” - Digital grandfather clock and repository for family information and memorabilia

By Joe Paine & Nathan Gates

American red oak; ultra-matte water-based sealer; custom digital timepiece

Two defunct grandfather clocks handed down over generations loomed over the lives of designer Joe Paine and artist Nathan Gates, who have come together to reimagine the grandfather clock as a design, and conceptual marker. Their “Now Now” clock for the Future Heirlooms project looks toward the Memphis movement for design inspiration, and asks what role a grandfather clock would play in contemporary living.

“I have a Grandfather Clock that has been in my family for over 300 years that always had faint voices of the past attached to it,” says Joe. “But we wanted to make a product that would update the typical grandfather clock into the 21st century that could be a safe repository for media such as family information, photos and videos. Our clock will literally have the past speak to you to remind you that death awaits, and to stop wasting time.”

The resulting piece is an audiovisual reminder that is not so much designed to tell the time, but to remind you of its imminent passing, and ceaseless cycle. Names echo from the chimes, and the sounds of jackals calling, as the interface references the amount of time left in the day, ticking on, and on.

“The grandfather clock in my family was always displayed but never set up,” Nathan says, “So instead of telling the time, it just served as an elaborate reminder that time was there, passing by. Heirlooms are these functional products that represent the many people who got us here. They are the parts that are left once we die to connect us to the future generation. They can speak to us through stories that are associated with the object, and so we wanted to explore that in the creation of our clock.”