SOUTHWOLD PIER WATERCLOCK
2001
Built in collaboration with Will
Jackson and Jack Trevellian.
This was originally built as a temporary water
feature, funded by Thames water, on the theme of recycling. We made it in three weeks to
an impossibly tight budget and it was very unreliable. In its original form, the water
swung the pendulum to keep the hands turning. This has been done successfully in the past
and I’m sure it’s the best way to make a waterclock accurate, but in retrospect
we probably should have separated the power to turn the hands from the power to keep the
pendulum swinging.
The figures in the bath sit up and squirt water at each other
The boys drop their trousers and pee, missing the toilet.
Me, Will Jackson and Jack Trevellian
The clock was scrapped, but the owner of Southwold Pier saw the pile of bits and
commissioned us to start from scratch, reusing some of the original parts. Most people
seemed much more interested in watching the water powered chiming performance than the
clock mechanism, so we decided to cheat. The hands and pendulum are now powered
electrically.
