Visualizing Ecological Processes ∙ Eric Ellingsen ∙ FL17


an everpresent sound

TRANSCRIPT

From whence it came. A Revolution 51. 

Thanks for your request, we’re very glad that you will talk about Swatch. Unfortunately, we can’t release any information about your request. We would like to thank you for your interest carried in our company and we hope you will arrive to do as well a good work for your class. We stay at your disposal. Thanks again Kind regards, Fabiana Chiacchio, Team Leader Public Relations.

CH 638 073
mécanisme de commande pour montre à affichage analogique

On the other hand, a control mechanism for watches with an analog display

Allgemeine Schweizerische Uhrenindustrie AG (ASUAG) and Société Suisse pour l’Industrie Horlogère (SSIH) to Société de Microélectronique et d'Horlogerie (SMH) to The Swatch Group.

A changing hand over the hand of millions. A hand is a hand by which hands are handed. Elmar Mock and Jacques Müller create the hand, while Hayek marks it.

The year of Reagan ticks the formal introduction, Dallas its beginning, though to low acclaim. Internationally launched in Zurich, the hands are set in motion, 156 production centers later. Strap it on it says, sportlich, sportlich, und so weiter sprechen sie. The watch that knows life should be an adventure. 

A present, present. A pair of hands hand me, a triune of hands. From the precision hand to the industrial hand, the hand of commercialism moves. Affordability undermines precision, the Asian to the Swiss. The time has come for hands to mark time. These hands are unique in their reproducibility, regular in their craftsmanship.

Here, there, the past is marked. The sound from within paired with the vision of it, defines perception. My perception, a sentient act. The watch does not perceive, or does it? How does its conception differ from my own?

In order to effect thermo-welding the two parts, sufficient pressure is applied to the upper face of the crystal to ensure intimate contact between the mating faces. At the same time energy is transmitted to the peripheral side wall at the location of the face, by virtue of the close contact between the two surfaces. That is, not only do the two parts experience highly localized heating, but also the thermo-welding operation produces interpenetration by fusion of the materials forming the two parts in question.

Fused together with sound – pressure, precision, and contact. Two solids, to liquid turn, back to solid – inextricably bonded together. A bond is present: between my mother and I, human and hund, crystal and casing. One begets another.

The sound is transmitted beyond its hermetic seal, as of osmotic process. It does not let in, that which can harm it, it only transmits. A one-way narrative. From within, without, never to return only to repeat. Sound is not as quick as the other perceptions. Our eyes see then hear, a momentary delay. But when we cannot see, our perception is altered. Sound’s quickness is relative to perception. We perceive what we hear. Our eyes lie, our ears lie, it is that which constitutes our condition.

Interior and exterior. Inside and out. What force dissolves the polarity of boundary? I see what I cannot hear, I hear what I cannot see. I see the constituent parts of the watch on the exterior, they are silent. The interior is withdrawn, producing the audible perceptive space. However, the sound is ever-present. Vibrations perturb, the amplitude varies, delimiting perception. A process of change, a calculus, we measure. Is it by the sound of the watch we record, or by the sight of the hands marching round? Does one belie the other?

What time does the watch measure? Do the tick, tick, tick mean something different to an animal that shares in my presence. If our presence together is measured by the mono-rhythmic demarcation, does each mark mean an alternate perception of time passing? But how can that be, if present means present. Is our demarcation of space and time relative to our own human condition? Or by measuring nonhumans length of life against ours simply reinforce the dipolar trope of us and other?

If all matter that ever existed is present already, does that mean the sound of the watch is just a recapitulation of sounds that existed elsewhere? The sound permeating the crystal is like the mirage in the desert. The bus and people we swear are there, they are, just elsewhere, nowhere, and now here.  



EXPERIMENTS

geo-spatial mapping

Foley experiments



Thermal experiments

augmented environmental experiments


microexpression experiments