Second Sun: Visualizing Time Difference
Auriel Rickard
Friends and family exist more and more at a distance. Despite our global connectivity, we struggle to actually feel closer to home. Second Sun is a networked light fixture that proposes new ways to perceive and interact with multiple time zones in one location. By visualizing the environmental daylight conditions of different geographical locations, Second Sun functions as an ambient world clock that can create both personal and shared instances of time. Its bulb glows and dims parallel to a distant sun; when the sun goes down in Hawaii so will Second Sun in New York. As our digital world blends with the physical we can begin to imagine new dynamics with time and distance. We may even become so sensitive to the temporal experiences with share others that we forget they exist outside of our here and now.