Recite II Travelling exhibition "...
listening to time ..."
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The European Bell Institute (IEAC Midi-Pyrenees) offered, for the year 2000, a new travelling exhibition dedicated to the history of time. The History of the calendar The history of dividing time The history of telling time The history of clock-making The history of sound in time telling |
This exhibition was conceived in the framework of the European programme RECITE II. It is part of the IDC medici dossier on the construction of steeples. In this framework if helped develop an awareness by indigenous populations and regional European groups of the conservation of clock towers which have become real estate by allocation. First of all , these towers, symbols of identity of a community and a region, bells and monumental clocks give rhythm to the life of the local folk. Why, since when and how ? Here are some of the questions that the exhibition "... listening to time ..." offers to answer. The exhibition "... listening to time ..." is richly illustrated and extremely adjustable, able to adapt itself to a large empty space as well as in a series of smaller rooms. The visitor, wandering through the exhibit freely (all the objects in the collection are protected), can proceed as he or she pleases, continuously or in a fragmented manner, through three parallel paths : - a chronology, a sort of "continuum" marking the important dates in - a collection of original objects which still function and which allow adults as well as children an understanding of the division of time and its mastery : sundials, a clepsydra, a wax clock, hour glasses, monumental mechanical clocks, comtoise clocks, pendulums, watches, an atomic clock, quartz watches, an astronomical clock controlled by satellite, universal time called internet time, as well as historical bells from the year 1000 and the 14th, 16th, 19th and 20th centuries, monumental timbres and figurines. - a portrait gallery creating distinct small islands made to focus on celebrated or less known figures who contributed to the conquest of time enabling us to listen to time. Among these men are Aristarc, Julius Caesar, Ptolemy, Constantine, St. Augustine, the Venerable Bede, Charlemagne, Al Kharizmi, Gerbert (Sylvester II, pope in the year 1000), Omar Khayam, Abraham bar Hiyya ha-Nasi, Roger Bacon, Copernicus, Gregory XIII, Galileo, etc. in the year 2000 it is 1997 according to the current calculation of the birth of Christ. 2753 according to the old Roman calendar. 2749 according to the ancient Babylonian calendar. 6236 according to the first Egyptian calendar. 5760 according to the Jewish calendar. 1420 according to the Moslem calendar. 1378 according to the Persian calendar. 1716 according to the Coptic calendar. 2544 according to the Buddhist calendar. 5119 according to the Mayan great cycle. 208 according to the calendar of the French Revolution.
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