- Prototype a sundial or tool to observe a star, planet, or satellite. Bring physical examples to class. Post brief documentation to your blog. See these notes on sundials.
- Listen to (or read the transcript) of this interview with Lera Boroditsky on Language, Thought, Space and Time.
I began by researching creative takes on sundials. I really loved this story behind this McDonalds billboard by Vince Cook. He created a working sundial on a billboard to advertise the different McDonalds breakfast items in July 2006.
Source: http://www.vincecookcreative.com/mcdonalds-sundial
In our class lecture about the movement of the sun, I was also reminded of this video I saw many years ago while browsing Reddit. It shows a group of cats following a sunbeam across the floor, which is 1) absolutely adorable and 2) a fun natural sundial in a way!
[Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/cats/comments/yk1uhe/a_timelapse_of_cats_following_a_sunbeam/](https://packaged-media.redd.it/dz7obb2toix91/pb/m2-res_720p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&v=1&e=1695524400&s=f97554ef44430f974df6a2044366bad07473f2d7#t=0)
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/cats/comments/yk1uhe/a_timelapse_of_cats_following_a_sunbeam/
Since I was thinking about food sundials and cats, I decided to make a silly stylized sundial for my cat, Thicc Mama. She wakes me up every morning at 7:30am for her breakfast, and she knows to wait by her food bowl around 7:30pm for her dinner. I used to often wonder how betrayed she felt when I was “off schedule” on the days when daylight savings time changes. I also think it’s so simple, even idyllic, to imagine life through my cat’s eyes: her only concept of time is when she eats, and the rest of the time she can sleep and rest peacefully.
I used latlong.net to find the coordinates of my apartment:
Then, I used this sundial template provided in the sundial notes class page.
For the engraving, I was very excited to use this adorable image of Thicc Mama sleeping, because she looks hilariously round (I promise it’s just the angle!), and I thought it would fit nicely with the semicircle of the base.
I loosely followed this tutorial in Adobe Photoshop to edit my image for easier engraving. Here’s post editing:
