[Orson Scott Card] once wrote “…time flows through all lives equally.” You have to wonder what he would think if he saw Rhei, a fluid clock that is part prototype, part dynamic installation, and part moving sculpture. The developers [Damjan Stanković], and [Marko Pavlović] say that time flows, and thanks to the fluid-based numerals on the clock face, that seems to be an appropriate tag line (if you can’t visualize it, check out the video below).
Purely from a design standpoint, the clock looks great. But it is the ferrofluid digits that mesmerize and doubtlessly helped Rhei win the 2015 Red Dot Award. We can’t help but think that if you could build a Minecraft-style clock in World of Goo, it might look something like this.
There isn’t a lot of detail about the internals of Rhei, but we covered Ferrolic about a month ago, which doubtlessly uses the same principle. [Zelf Koelman] (the maker behind Ferrolic) published a paper at the International Symposium on Electronic Art (PDF file) that describes the technology behind these hypnotic displays. You can even make your own ferrofluid. We’ve been a little preoccupied with clocks lately, but you have to admit, these clocks are attention grabbers at any time.