Virtual Typography

5.4

5

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Typography and the process of reading: 5.4 The prospective interpretation of text contents

5.3 Saccadic eye movements 5.5 Time consciousness

The prospective interpretation of text contents

Clock – Christiian Postma

Christiian Postma is a Dutch artist and designer who works

and lives in Stockholm, Sweden. Postma explores ‘the

unexpected’ and seeks to strike the viewer with surprise.

Following an investigation into time, Postma arranged

more than 150 individual clockworks in systematic order to

produce a clock sized 140cm by 140cm. Postma illustrates

the progression of time by letting numbers gradually

emerge in the shape of written words. Due to the careful

synchronisation of the clockworks, the words ‘one’ to

‘twelve’ become readable one by one precisely when they

are needed to indicate the relevant time. So the word ‘four’

becomes legible when it is four o’clock and it dissolves again

as time moves on. The word ‘fi ve’ begins to appear and by

fi ve o’clock the word ‘fi ve’ is clearly visible, while the word

‘four’ has already vanished.

Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

2nd Proof Page:12 6

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