Electronic Sculpture Archive
Bruce Cannon

Your Book of Days closed

Your Book Of Days (1998)

Antique book, microcontroller, real time clock, display, lithium batteries;
8x5x2"; 1lb.

This machine is a book of Nostradamus for its owner.  I program it with their date of birth, and the current date.  They keep it hidden away on a shelf somewhere.   Each time they open it, it calculates and displays the number of months until their death, based on insurance company acturarial statistics.  Its clock is very low power, and its batteries will probably outlast its owner.

This sculpture is accompanied by a project document, a collage drawing featuring technical details, concept sketches, and development notes.

Your Book of Days open

Technical notes:
This sculpture is a personal system, in that it is designed to function for only one person.  Some of my machines of this type use a key or other strategy for insuring that the systems's behavior is synchronised to its owner, but this piece relies on the fact that it looks more or less like a normal book.  The idea is that the owner will hide it in their library, and pull it down when they want a prediction.

Your Book of Days screen closeup

In the photo of the piece open you can see a 9v-type lithium cell, which has a very large capacity and a very long life.  This battery drives the dispay, only active when the book is open.  In addition, it backs up the primary clock battery, the coin cell you can see in the closeup shot.  In this way, each battery can be changed while the other maintains the system.  There is a built-in periodic reminder designed to allow this system to be run indefinitely.

Your Book of Days project document

This sculpture is accompanied by a project document, a drawing which incorporates concept notes, sketches, schematics, code listings and other materials.  For more technical details visit that piece's page.