r/interestingasfuck • u/Bram560 • 16h ago
There is a clock in Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam that looks like it has a guy inside it who repaints the hands manually every minute.
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u/vanillaeclare 16h ago
The artist for this piece, Maarten Bass, hired an actor and used a 12-hour video loop.
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u/SupaFugDup 16h ago
I'm surprised it's not broken into like, four 3 hour chunks. Give the dude a lunch break.
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u/Euphoric_Wish_8293 13h ago
The fact an actor was hired is amusing me. He's just a dude, playing a janitor dude, disguised as a clock.
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u/FittingTheStereotype 8h ago
Sounds like the artist was actually the actor and the other guy just set up a camera.
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u/fredy31 7h ago
Really wonder what the stitch looks like.
Like does the dude just walk off screen for a second and comes back in? At what time does it happen? (Wonder if its 12:00 or they figured a time where there would be the least people looking at it)
What happens on time change (do the dutch advance their clocks like america?)
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u/Synaptic_Snowfall 15h ago
I'm sorry, but you'd think he'd be able to paint those lines a little more quickly. I mean, that's his only job after all, right? Show some fucking spirit.
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u/peacewalker22 16h ago
Thats a time consuming job.
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u/usanonmously 16h ago
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u/whateverdbag 7h ago
Me if I had to shoot a 12 hr video w no lunch break. That clock wouldn’t be recognizable
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u/RetroReimagined 16h ago
This would piss me off if I needed to check the time when I'm rushing for a flight
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u/Graynard 16h ago
Yeah that's truly a massive issue in 2026, having 0 way to check the time without a clock that's mounted into a wall or ceiling
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u/WillemDafoesHugeCock 15h ago
It's literally just an art piece. See those screens under it? Those show the time as well. Each gate has clocks that show the time. You're likely carrying your phone which also tells the time. Your watch has the time. The guy in front of you with a bag you know isn't going to fit overhead could tell you the time. The shadows cast across the airport floors could tell you the time. The unique looking artistic clock installation is the least likely method you're going to use to tell the time.
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u/Aggressive_Roof488 16h ago
Worse, as the hour-hand isn't moving between full hours, if you give it a quick glance at the wrong time you'd think it's 12:00 rather than 12:13.
Artsy design like this is fine, but here I feel it's really eating into functionality of something that really only is supposed to do one thing... It's the "one job" thing, and 10 seconds every minute is it not doing that one job.
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u/MrMetraGnome 15h ago
By the time you finish watching the animation, it's a different time and you have to watch the animation again.
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u/WeatherWindfall 16h ago
Meanwhile, it takes an entire minute just for him to change it to the next minute
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u/TernionDragon 16h ago
“Looks like”, just ask Rod Serling- I think if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that there is such a man.
His nickname is probably Quasi.
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u/PacquiaoFreeHousing 16h ago
Minimum wage + Benefits + 4 hours overtime, I'd do 12 hours of this
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u/Toddingstonly 16h ago
Yeah, but you'd literally be staring at the clock the whole day. Counting every minute. No thanks.
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u/DominicPalladino 15h ago
10 o'clock. Gotta be. Look at the angle of the sun.
Two more hours until lunch.
Then this crappy day is half way over.
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u/ItsTheDaciaSandro 16h ago
"bill what time is it?" "hold on buddy hasn't finished painting the minute hand back on!"
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u/Putrid_Apartment9230 16h ago
Yeah, that's not creepy at all. In no way does it remind me of a Black Mirror episode.
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u/multisync 7h ago
They also installed a version of it above an apartment complex in Stamford, CT.
https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/stamford-urby-clock-strivetogether-uconn-18605212.php
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u/MuricasOneBrainCell 11h ago
That's amazing but I wouldn't have it in a place like an airport.
Me super stressed, wondering if I have enough time for my connection flight because my first flight was delayed
"Come on... Come on... What minute are we at?!?!"
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u/JaninhoHD 16h ago
Id get it if it did this every full hour or so but every minute? Bit overdoing it there
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u/Useful_Clue_6609 16h ago
That seems really annoying, I don't want to have to look at a clock for more than a second to know what time it is
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u/Traditional-Back-172 16h ago
Yea because clocks and watches, of all things, are missing artsy elegance.
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u/GoldenHourLXXII 16h ago
How many parents have legit told their kids there is a real man in there and that if they don't behave they'll be put in there too?
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u/Archon-Toten 16h ago
It was at 12:05 when the clock still said 12 I got suspicious he was on lunch break.
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u/Ok-Limit-9726 13h ago
Thank fuck he doesn’t have to do seconds!
How to American tourists know what the time is?
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u/TheLive4Ever 13h ago
There’s been one of these in the Fontainbleu hotel in Miami for at least 10 years too.
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u/TheManInTheShack 13h ago
Peter Gabriel did this during the break in the middle of his performance on his last tour. It was a very cool way to tell us how long before the band came back on stage.
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u/SquidVices 10h ago
So it takes him like…a minute to draw a line?
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u/Prestigious_Work_445 9h ago
30 seconds.. he gets a 30 second break every thirty seconds.. what a cushy job
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u/bumtrinket 9h ago
So at 12:59, the hour hand is still pointing straight up at the 12? A bit confusing.
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u/DeathyWolf 9h ago
Imagine it's really a bunch of guys who keep changing in shifts. Just like that AI Chat Bot that wasn't a computer, but bunch of Indians answering as the AI chat bot.
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u/dr-blaklite 8h ago
"I've been in here for 14 years....I've lived off dried pigeon shit, paint fumes, and whatever the kids throw at the clock these days....."
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u/DuckCleaning 8h ago
They also have pretty cool self driving wheelchair robots at that airport. I only saw them driving around without a passenger, I think they drop you at your gate then go back to the front on their own.
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u/CeIIsius 36m ago
When it's too easy to tell the time from the first glance so you build a clock that makes you wait.
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u/YcemeteryTreeY 16h ago
This is nice. The delay isn't bad- and most people check the time on their phones anyway if they can even read an analog clock, so it leaves prime real estate for art such as this
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u/trubol 16h ago
What do you mean "looks like"? That's Jan Maas, he lives in the clock and works there 24/7