Here's a sweet little student project from ITP: a clock that counts up to a hundred years and falls apart:



Showing 'Time in Six Parts,' the clock "rotates once every second. The following pulley rotates once every 5 seconds (1:5 ratio). The next rotates once every 60 seconds or 1 minute. Then 5 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 month, 1 year, and 1 decade. The decade wheel carries the load of the large arc. The large arc rotates once every century. The final ratio between the 60-RPM motor and the large arc is approximately 1:31.6 billion. Each wheel is marked with a black nut to highlight a position that could be tracked over time. Along the arc, 100 lines mark the divisions of each passing year. When the clock finally reaches the end of a 100-year cycle, the arc falls off its track onto the floor."

The 3.16 Billion Cycles Clock, with the time in six part series, is perhaps an attempt to present time in a prospective like never seen earlier. If with this the designer intended to take time beyond our consideration and explore its new realms, he has by far succeeded in his effort, but still the clock remains routed to the core, by living every second till eternity (we aren't living an age to see a 100 years pass).