Doomsday Clocks
The Doomsday Clocks are responses to the onrushing climate apocalypse inspired by Metronome’s Climate Clock, Martyl Suzanne Schweig Langsdorf and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and apollonian gasket fractals, a visual indication of the infinite, and this moment of crisis as one of many moments, and many crises, all requiring perpetual revolutionary action in order to change for the better.
Wood Sculpture was a studio with large-scale sculpture artist Prof. Matt Lynch, who configured the class around the idea of the apocalypse, and divided the class into three periods: pre-apocalypse, apocalypse, and post-apocalypse.
Doomsday Clock 1
2022, wood, 8’ feet long and 5’ tall when fully assembled.
Central piece, shown left, 4’ in diameter.
Apocalypse
During the Apocalypse phase of the class we could only use hand- and solar-powered tools. This piece was made from found wood; a piece of cast-off furring board and this monolithic slap sourced from the Spring Grove Arboretum. This beautiful cross-section of tulip poplar had a silvery inner bark on the exterior and lovely spalting throughout.
This was my first introduction to hammer drills and forstner bits. Several bits and about two solid weeks of work were sacrificed for this piece. I learned so much about solar power, battery longevity, cordless drills, gas-powered chainsaws, shave horses, chisels, and the vital importance of a creative community, because there was no way I was getting this thing up on the wall on my own.
Field Trip and Process
Doomsday Clock 2
2022, mdf, Baltic birch plywood,
4 feet in diameter
Post-Apocalypse
In the post-apocalypse phase we were encouraged to use the high-tech tools available to us at UC DAAP:
an excellently staffed prototyping center, laser cutters, and Komo CNC machines. Machining required precision I wouldn’t be able to get from found materials, so I used imported and manufactered wood products like baltic birch and mdf. With a new awareness of what these products were and what they meant for the planet, I reused offcuts for clockface components.