Barnsley Council have just lavished £32,500 of taxpayers’ money on a big new clock on the side of the Civic building.
The only problem, just a minor one really, is that no-one appears to be able to recognise it as a timepiece, let alone actually tell what time it is! That’s because it is ‘art’. Nuff said.
The ‘clock’ is made up of 20,000 tiny bulbs (lightbulbs, although they might as well be tulips) which even alter brightness according to the weather so as to always be visible. Red lights move round in a big square pattern on the side of the building, but there are no numbers anywhere to be seen.
Most people apparently give up trying to tell the time with the new clock (after having actually been informed it really is a clock) and turn round to look at the old-fashioned Town Hall clock.
The new ArtyClock is so obvious that one person thought it was a warning signal to stop planes from hitting the building.
Good to see that tax money is being spent wisely during the credit crunch. According to one of those responsible for the new clock:
It is a unique interpretation of a clock and combines contemporary design with an unusual functioning timepiece. Art provides many functions one of the most important of which can be to make people think about their own interpretation of the work in front of them.
Which I suppose, roughly translated, means, ‘I can’t tell the time with it either’.