APPLE WORLD CLOCK
civil time
Time system based on world wide
network of external atomic clocks
that fix the beginning, length, and
divisions of the civil year. Objective is
to arrange days and longer divisions
of time (such as weeks and months)
in a definite order.
LINNAEUS FLOWER CLOCK
plant time
Time system based on plant daily and
seasonal life cycles as regulated by
their internal circadian clocks and as
modified by real time responses to
climate change. Objective is survival.
helioscape - concept
Against the dominant greens of the ground cover and tree horizon, a visually arresting patch of color attracts your eye. Just as it might a bee
seeking nectar.
Closer, the eye catching patch resolves into a colored curved arc that sits asymmetrically atop a slim tapered metal stem. Hovering above the arc is a polished steel globe that both reflects the sun's image and transmits its shadow. Cursory observation suggests a garden sculpture that abstractly mimics an exotic flower.
Called the Hathajori, its name comes from a flower in the Heliotrope family. The signal characteristic of a Heliotropic plant is that, guided by its circadian clock, it tilts and turns in real time to follow the daily path of the sun and thereby maximizes photosynthesis and its chances of survival.
Sustained observation will eventually show that precisely at solar noon, the Hathajori's globe casts its shadow onto the arc's incised centerline. Further inspection will evidence the shadow's slow migration up or down the centerline's ladder of days and months. To relate this daily migration to the calendar, edge indents either side of the north-south axis locate the shadow's alignment on the 21st day of each month.
So observation confirms that at precisely this latitude and longitude, the Hathajori tells solar civil time.
But the Hathajori's dial plate shows other cryptic markings that suggest still deeper temporal ambitions. When the shadow of the high altitude spring sun falls alongside the dial plate's circles, it marks the early spring period when lilacs bud and bloom. When the shadow of the low altitude autumnal sun falls alongside the dial plate's diamonds, it marks the autumn period when the leaves of the red maple change from green to red, yellow and gold.
So observation confirms that at precisely this latitude and longitude, the Hathajori also tells plant time.
Architect Davidson Norris has designed four Heliotropes. They all very accurately tell civil (solar) time. But their deeper purpose is to migrate the observer's understanding of time from "arranging days and weeks and months in a definite order" to the observation of plant life in order to better understand the "manifestation of life ruled by the time and climate".
heliotrope-experience
Hathajori is also known as the Indian Heliotrope. Its tiny, delicate flower clusters rotate about its spike terminal branch to follow the sun's path over the course of the day.
h e l i o t r o p e - h a t h a j o r i
heliotrope-hathajori
Indents mark the 21st day of each month. Upper left dial plate diamonds
mark the period when the red maple leaves fall in autumn. Lower right dial plate circles mark the period when lilacs bloom in spring.
h e l i o t r o p e - h a t h a j o r i
h e l i o t r o p e - h a t h a j o r i
Dimensions:
Dial plate : 2.5"w x 19"d x 14 3/8"h
Dial plate radius: 12"
Gnomon height: 12"
Stem height to gnomon ctr : 57"
Base plate : 12" dia
Design: Each Hathajori is custom designed to tell civil and plant time at the owner's latitude / longitude.
Fabrication:
5 axis computer controlled milling machine set to tolerance =1/10000"
Materials:
Dial plate milled from solid block of A6061 architectural aluminum. Stem and base plates milled from solid blocks of 316 stainless steel.
Finishes:
Dial plate is degreased, sandblasted and then finished with single ceramic color coat sprayed on and baked. Stem and base plate are hand finished uniform angel hair.
Dial plate colors:
Red / Blue / Purple / Green
Each color is hand mixed to match Pantone color swatch selected by dialist.
Edition and signature:
100 Hathajoris will be made. Each one is numbered on the base plate and signed by Davidson Norris.
Site selection:
By owner with guidance for Helioscape.
Installation:
By owner to include 6" dia cylindrical concrete footing down to stable sub surface support.
h e l i o t r o p e - h a t h a j o r i
Tulips are heliotropic: they twist, arc or move throughout the day to orient themselves to the sunlight. Their flowers are also photonastic: they close at night to trap heat gathered during the day.
h e l i o t r o p e - tulip
heliotrope-tulip
h e l i o t r o p e - tulip
h e l i o t r o p e - tulip
Dimensions:
Dial plate outer :8.25" x 6" h
Dial plate inner: 8" diameter hemisphere
Gnomon height: 4"
Overall height: 41 1/8"
Base plate : 10" dia
Design: Each Tulip is custom designed to tell civil time at the owner's latitude / longitude.
Production:
Fabrication: 5 axis computer controlled milling machine
Tolerance: 1/10000"
Materials:
Dial plate milled from solid block of A6061 architectural aluminum. Stem and base plates milled from solid blocks of 316 stainless steel.
Finishes:
Dial plate is degreased, sandblasted and then finished with single ceramic color coat sprayed on and baked. Stem and base plate are hand finish uniform angel hair.
Dial plate colors:
Red / Blue / Purple / Green
Each color is hand mixed to match Pantone color swatch selected by dialist
Edition and signature:
100 Tulips will be made. Each one is numbered on the base plate and signed by Davidson Norris.
Site selection:
By owner with guidance for Helioscape.
Installation:
By owner to include 6" dia cylindrical concrete footing down to stable sub surface support.
h e l i o t r o p e - tulip
In the arctic buttercup, heliotropism raises flower temperatures, enticing pollinating insects to remain, basking and foraging. In addition, it increases light interception by photosynthetically active ovarian parts. This facilitates seed growth.
h e l i o t r o p e - buttercup
heliotrope-buttercup
Linear incisions mark the hours. Top arced and overlapping incisions mark the phenological period when the red maple leaves change color and fall in autumn. Bottom when lilacs blossom in spring.
h e l i o t r o p e - buttercup
h e l i o t r o p e - buttercup
Dimensions:
Dail plate: 14" dia
Gnomon height: 2.5"
Height to center of node: 46.5"
Base plate : 12" dia
Design: Each Buttercup is custom designed to tell civil and plant time at the owner's latitude / longitude.
Fabrication:
5 axis computer controlled milling machine with tolerance set to 1/10000"
Materials:
Dial plate milled from solid block of A6061 architectural aluminum. Stem and base plates milled from solid blocks of 316 stainless steel.
Finishes:
Dial plate is degreased, sandblasted and then finished with single ceramic color coat sprayed on and baked. Stem and base plate are hand finished uniform angel hair.
Dial plate colors:
Red / Blue / Purple / Green
Each color is hand mixed to match Pantone color selected by the dialist.
Edition and signature:
100 Buttercups will be made. Each one is numbered on the base plate and signed by Davidson Norris.
Site selection:
By owner with guidance from Helioscape.
Installation:
By owner to include 6" dia cylindrical concrete footing down to stable sub surface support.
h e l i o t r o p e - buttercup
The Mimosa pudica is not a heliotrope. It is botanically historic. In 1729, Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan demonstrated that the Mimosa could "sense the sun without seeing it." It did so using what is now called the Mimosa's internal circadian clock, the primary driver of plant heliotropism.
h e l i o t r o p e - mimosa
heliotrope-mimosa
h e l i o t r o p e - mimosa
h e l i o t r o p e - mimosa
Dimensions:
Dial plate face: 6" dia
Dial plate sphere: 8" dia
Base tripod: 5.75" dia x 6" h
Gnomon height: .75"
Overall height: 11.75" approx
Design: Each Mimosa is custom designed to tell civil time at the owner's latitude / longitude.
Fabrication:
Five axis computer controlled milling machine set to 1/10000" tolerance.
Materials:
Dial plate milled from solid block of A6061 architectural aluminum. Tripod ring is stainless steel welded. Tripod stems and feet milled from solid blocks of 316 stainless steel.
Finishes:
Dial plate is degreased, sandblasted and then finished with single ceramic color coat sprayed on and baked. Sphere and tripod base are hand finished uniform angel hair.
Dial plate colors:
Red / Blue / Purple / Green
Each color is hand mixed to match Pantone color swatch selected by dialist.
Edition and signature:
100 Mimosas will be made. Each one is numbered on the base plate and signed by Davidson Norris.
Site selection:
By owner with guidance from Helioscape.
Installation:
By owner to include 6" dia cylindrical concrete footing down to stable sub surface support.
h e l i o t r o p e - mimosa
DAVIDSON NORRIS
In 2020 Architect Davidson Norris incorporated Helioscape Inc. to design and fabricate Heliotropes, site-specific sundials inspired by plant circadian chronobiology and seasonal phenology.
Davidson Norris, is an architect and a principal, along with sculptor James Carpenter, of Carpenter Norris Consulting, an architecture, daylighting design, and consulting firm based in New York City and founded in 1996.
CNC has served as daylighting design advisor on projects that include museums, courthouses, office buildings, convention centers, laboratories, transit hubs, urban parks, urban plans, and artworks.
CNC has also designed site-specific daylighting art installations such as the Washington DC Solar Light Pipe, the Austin Convention Center Sky Wedge, the NYC Fulton St Transit Center Skydome, and the Weill Cornell Medical Center Skymasts. CNC has designed a large-scale noonmark sundial for the Meridian Corridor at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. See adjacent.
Mr. Norris has taught sustainable and daylighting design for more than 20 years at Columbia University GSAPP.
CNC’s daylighting work has received awards from the Architectural League, IALD, ID magazine, the IES, and the GSA. Mr. Norris’ architectural work has received awards from the US Department of Energy, Progressive Architecture, the GSA's Presidential Design Awards Program, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Grants and fellowships include the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the MacDowell Colony. In 2014, Mr. Norris was selected as a fellow of the American Academy in Jerusalem where he studied the "light of place" in the Old City.
Mr. Norris is a 1977 graduate of the Yale School of Architecture.
helioscape - davidson norris
PLANT TIME / PHENOLOGY
The Heliotropes seek to express and embody Plant Time.
To do so the upper dial plate on this Hathajori includes a line of incised diamonds that identifies the autumn period when the red maple's leaves turn color and fall. When the gnomon's shadow falls in the diamond zone, local red maples will likely be deploying their autumn colors. A similar line of circles, incised on the lower dial plate, identifies the spring period when the lilacs reach peak color.
To determine with precision when these lilac and red maple plant times occur, Helioscape used Boston area phenological data from the USA National Phenological Network. See link below. USA-NPN deploys a team of research scientists, programmers, educators, program designers and volunteer observers to gather, collate and distribute empirical data on the timing of seasonal events in native plants (and animals).
USA-NPN historical data show that lilacs in the Boston area typically bloom between April 19th and May 28th. Using coincident noontime solar altitudes, these Plant Time dates were mapped onto the Hathajori dial plate with incised circles. When the gnomon's shadow falls in the circle zone, locally observable lilacs will likely be near their peak color.
At present, plant time data can only be mapped to either the Hathajori or the Buttercup dial plates.
USA-NPN:
helioscape - plant time
For further information on general Heliotrope design, required design information (site selection and color choice), as well as cost, contract, payment schedule, fabrication, fabrication lead time, shipping, and installation please contact Helioscape using the adjacent form.
helioscape-contact