Starting with the idea that “Form should deceive its Function”, I wanted to create a clock that looks unlike any other before it.

Deception is the key in the Shang Kan clock and its name is the hint. When you come across this device for the first time, it seems like an alien object from outer space. Once you get closer to it, you will realize that it is an I-Phone docking station, speaker and candle holder. The candle holding arms can rotate via an internal mechanical device which in turns changes the physical geometry of the design.

So you now understood that you have an audio entertainment device as well as a rather strange ambient lighting system but how can it tell time? With the included circular mirror you are instructed to place it on the ceiling directly above the Shang Kan clock. Once this is done you will be able to understand through its ceiling reflection the candle holder arms are actually time indicators, one of the main structure support leg marks the midday/midnight position and the mirror’s edge becomes the time indication position.

If you never look up you will never know this device true functionality and only through discovery can you perceive time. I will not merely call this a clock but more a deception sculpture and I hope to make the user become as much a detective or choose to remain as an observer. Like magic, all its secrets lie just below its exterior!

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