Sundials as blending of Art and Science

Bill Gottesman April 28, 2014 LBWCC

 We like our art to be informed by what we know,
and we like our science to be presented with elegance and beauty.
 Sculpture
What we will do
Math  Scientific Instruments Art  Painting
Architecture
Literature
A sundial is really just a map of
the sky
A sundial is really just a map of
the sky
A sundial is really just a map of
the sky
 Tonys Dial

Sundial and Photo by Tony Moss

 Gnomonic

From United States Geological Survey web site

Gnomonic Projections
Stereographic
Stereographic Projections
Orthographic
Orthographic Projections
Ring dials
Canon
Canon Movie
 Laser

Equatorial
Globe Dial
Equinox/Solstice Sculpture (Kate Pond)
Odyssey of light

Time Lapse movie, day before equinox

Odyssey Movie
Circles for Peace dial
Sunset
Tree
Victoria, Australia
Victoria, Australia
Mont Saint Michelp
Mont Saint Movie
 King John III Sobieski’s
Wilanow Palace, Warsaw, Poland
Warsaw detail
Astronomer Fresco
Saint Sebastian1
From
Antonello da Saint Sebastian
Messina, 1479
Detail
Ambassadors
Ambassadors
 Mottos: A universal truth or saying

Mortality: -It’s later than you think

-All hours wound, the last one kills
-Use then, Don’t count them
-Oh time, devourer of things.

Inspiration: -Time Flies (Tempus Fugit)

-Carpe Diem
 17th century
stained glass dial Stained Glass
This is part of
the artwork:
“Time Flies”
(Tempus Fugit)
 King Henry VI, Act 2, Scene V

“O God! methinks it were a happy life,

To be no better than a homely swain;
…
To carve out dials quaintly, point by point,
Thereby to see …
How many years a mortal man may live.”
Bracelets
Rubik
Car
Potter
 Leg

Sun Aura Resort

Lake Village, Indiana
Glasses
Analem1
Taken from Analem2
January 12 to
December
21, 2002, by
Anthony
Ayiomamitis
When I was Analem3
growing up,
globes commonly
had analemmas
in the pacific
ocean.
Nobody knew
what they were
for then, either.
 Equation of Time
Properly measure and published by John Flamsteed 1672; a
consequence of Huygens’ invention of the Pendulum Clock in
1656.
 Dolphin dial
Civil Time
Equatorial at
Greenwich
Naval
Observatory
 Renaissance dial

Focusing Equatorial
Sundial
(Made by Yours Truly)
Movie Renaissance
Pond Dial Champlain
Architecture
movie
Disney
Lennox
Bridge
Argyle Square
Central Park
Tempest
San Petronio
Basilica
Conclusions

• Every object tells a story.

• We choose how to interpret that story.
“Looking is an act of choice” – Andre
Bouchard.
• Sundials are wonderful things.

Bill Gottesman 2014,

www.precisionsundials.com
Questions?

Bill Gottesman 2014,

www.precisionsundials.com
Adele Mara
(Actress)
UVM close up
UVM Again
UVM Dial
 Digital
Digital
Sundial
By Daniel
Scharstein of
Middlebury
College
Beatrice
Watch
Art tells stories, we are all story tellers. We are Homo Sapiens, Wise Man. We are also Homo Narratus,
Man who tells stories.

Art tells an internal story. It is our story.

Science also tells a story. It is a of observation and discovery of how we work, and the world works. It
is an external story.

Science is the narrative of the external. art is a narrative of expression and challenge, the internal.

We use art to tell stories. So when we tell the story of science, we use art to help.

(Brief comment on renaissance. We learned the Universe is rational)

Earth is a sundial.
Renaissance: Gutenberg Press (~1450) Columbus, challenge the classical views of the time. Copernicus,
Gallileo, Kepler (~1610)

We like our art to be informed by what we know, and we like to present our science with elegance and
beauty.
 Geared ClockDial

Equatorial
Clock Dial
UVM Sheild
Henry Wynne
~1685

Wynn
From: Sundials, by Mark Lennox-Boyd
Vertical Dial Austria
Earring Sundial
Mars
Pendant
Stone Circle Layout