Clockpunk

Another genre of pseudo-paleofuturism which I never knew existed, but which seem to have quite a niche…

… and who could resist a “Table Clock with Plunky Dunks”? Amazing.

There’s also a blog devoted to Da Vinci Automata, and a Clockpunk Flickr group… actually Flickr is morphing from a photosharing site to a photo search-engine… similar to the way Youtube is now kindof about search. Second biggest search engine on the web apparently.

All of which was inspired by this :

Which is real. A Gunpowder Flask Sundial Compass Watch from the 16th Century which is part of this fairly cool (well early on, I can’t help but feel it skipped a lot of the 20th century. Where are the Jetpacks? Where are the exploding pens?) set of photos of the history of spy gadgets

My favourites though (because I am a creature of starlight etc) are Nocturelabes – nocturnal sundials:

from a fairly cool site about the Medici and Science which has all sorts of other wondrous gadgets.

I love the fact that these are still being made. Technology never dies… it just becomes uncited. Unlinked.

Click on this then, go on, I dare you.