When the lights go on and the clocktower, the landmark of Graz, lights up in all its night-time glory, its chimes are also made visible. The lights are briefly dimmed to 20% intensity at each chime of the bell and then turned back up. At an increasing distance, sound and image diverge like the lightning and thunder of a distant storm, as sound and light travel at different speeds. The result is a momentary upset in the public order of time prescribed by the hour bell, when the clocktower begins to “flicker” in the changing light.
The core of the building on the edge of the Schlossberg hill was built in the 13th century. The clocktower in its current form has been watching over the city since 1560. The hour bell dates back to 1382. Alongside it hang the fire bell (1645) and the condemned bell, that was in service indicating executions as of around 1450, later, in the 19th century, sounding the curfew. That’s how long public time signals have existed in Graz. Central European Time (CET) was only approved as a standard international time system in 1893. Often enough, time slips by in the hectic pace of day-to-day life, but never has timekeeping been visualised so originally in sound and image.
Werner Reiterer, born in Leibnitz in 1964, lives in Vienna.
