Daniella Briceño Villamil, adrian hernandez, Reinhard Bek, and Christina Frohnert
Electronic Media Review, Volume Eight: 2023-2024
ABSTRACT
Robert Rauschenberg’s Carnal Clocks (1969) exemplify the intersection of art, technology, and innovation during a transformative era. This unique series of timepieces features a concealed clock mechanism with custom-made electronics and 48 light bulbs, subtly illuminating screenprinted imagery on mirrored and frosted acrylic sheets. This article discusses a survey of the Carnal Clocks in the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation collection, offering insights into managing temporal and material changes in time-based media art conservation. An experiment measuring clock drift and historical research revealed the Clocks’ idiosyncratic behavior, prompting questions about how their function as “clocks” hinges on shifting cultural perceptions of time. We recommend a threshold for clock drift, balancing their original state and the artist’s intention with present-day technological and institutional values. This proposal, reviewed with Foundation collection managers, curators, and conservators from institutions housing Carnal Clocks, considers contemporary exhibition challenges, including public programming, and obsolete technology management. The research highlights evolving values in time-based media conservation. This project was supported by Voices in Contemporary Art and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in partnership with the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation and the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.
Introduction
Time is an elusive and multifaceted concept, ingrained in both the natural world and human consciousness. Philosophers have pondered its nature for centuries, scientists have sought to measure and quantify it, and artists have explored its passage and implications in their work. In time-based media art conservation, time presents unique challenges: it is both the medium through which artworks are experienced and a force that alters their materiality.
Understanding time’s dual role as both a measure and a transformative agent is crucial for conservators tasked with preserving works that rely on temporal elements. Time-based media art stewards are mindful of time when it comes to the synchronization of audio and video signals, as well as in the synchronization of slide projectors (O’Connor 2016) and multichannel video works. Recording file attributes (such as frames per second) and the use of equipment (such as time base correctors) aid stewards in the migration of artworks. The experience of time has also been explored in the care of computer- and software-based art where hardware dependencies, such as the clock speed of the central processing units, become a factor in their emulation and migration (Hölling 2012; Falcão, Dekker, and Laurenson 2016; Farbowitz 2018; Roeck 2018). Attention has also been given to capturing the order and timing of sequences in time-based media artworks with kinetic, performative, or interactive elements (Ensom 2019; arden 2020b; Mellado Martínez 2020). Still, gaps remain in the literature in the conservation of time-based media, particularly regarding the accuracy and interpretation of temporal elements in artworks. As a relatively new discipline, time-based media conservation is still refining its methodologies, with many works understudied in terms of how temporal accuracy influences their perception and meaning.
In the 1960s, Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008), a pioneer of contemporary art, with an interest in various subjects, styles, materials, and techniques, collaborated with Bell Laboratories’ engineer Billy Klüver on groundbreaking technological projects. Rauschenberg then became one of four founding members of the cutting-edge nonprofit Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) in 1966, with the aim of democratizing technology for artists through collaborations with engineers. Although Rauschenberg’s focus on technology-based art peaked in the 1960s, he continued to explore technology in his art through the 1990s.
Reflecting the rapidly evolving technological landscape of their era, Rauschenberg’s Carnal Clocks, from 1969 (fig. 1), exemplify not only the collaboration between artists and engineers, but also with manufacturing companies, illustrating innovative processes and use of brand new materials. Rauschenberg commissioned Artkraft Strauss Sign Corporation—a prominent designer known for iconic signage in Times Square, New York City—to fabricate these freestanding light sculptures. These were developed with the assistance of Klüver to include a concealed clock mechanism, provided by the company Time-O-Matic, to control 48 incandescent light bulbs arranged in two concentric squares (fig. 2). The inner square represents the “hour” with 40W bulbs, whereas the outer square represents the “minutes” with 25W bulbs. Each electromechanical chassis is paired with a unique acrylic face, and these two parts compose a Carnal Clock. Each face is created from two joined acrylic sheets treated with mirroring, frosting, and screenprinting processes. Unlike the chassis, the faces have given titles. The photographic silkscreen ink layer includes images enlarged from Polaroids taken by Rauschenberg of everyday objects and close-ups of body parts. As time progresses, two of the 48 bulbs light up to indicate the hours and minutes. One of the most distinctive features of the Clocks is a function we refer to as the “12 o’clock function,” where at noon and midnight, all bulbs illuminate simultaneously, revealing the distinctive compositions of each silkscreened Carnal Clock face.
The Clocks’ movement has several components that allow it to keep time (fig. 3). In horology, the term movement refers to the main assembly of a timepiece, excluding the hands, and includes mechanisms for power and handsetting in a traditional clock. The Carnal Clocks use a movement manufactured by the company Signatrol. This “clock mechanism” includes components such as fuses, synchronous motors, relays, electromagnets, and camshafts. Later additions, such as transformers and inverters, were made to address power differences for exhibiting the artworks in Europe. Additionally, the Clocks are equipped with an attached toggle-switch remote that allows the user to set the time by advancing it at different intervals.
Curators, conservators, and researchers have sought to understand this series, which so fittingly reflects Rauschenberg’s broad interest in various materials, techniques, and collaborations. More so, the Carnal Clocks have also undergone changes. In 1998, the engineer and collaborator, Per Biorn, implemented modifications to Rauschenberg’s Clocks to facilitate their exhibition in Europe. In 2004, to facilitate safer handling and prevent electrocution, Biorn made a modification to isolate the white neutral wires from the metal surface of the Carnal Clocks. Conservators Christine Frohnert and Reinhard Bek of Bek & Frohnert LLC have worked with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation on the conservation of the series, performing an initial survey and various interventions to ensure the artworks remain suitable for display while accommodating Biorn’s modifications. As a student, time-based media conservator, sasha arden, conducted research that deepened the understanding of the Carnal Clocks as light-based artworks with temporal instability (arden 2020a; arden 2021; arden 2024). Their work focused on technical details, conservation interventions related to replacing incandescent light bulbs with LEDs, and the ethical and conservation considerations associated with these interventions (arden 2020a; arden 2021; arden 2024). These examples underscore that many of the Clocks underwent numerous adjustments that do not constitute comprehensive conservation treatments, and some were not formally documented.
Furthermore, with the support of a multiyear partnership between the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC), the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and Voices in Contemporary Art (VoCA), co-author Daniella Briceño Villamil explored the significance and preservation of the material and temporal elements in these artworks during her second year as a graduate fellow. Her work involved material analysis of the faces, archival research, and a preventive study focusing on the question of time, artist intent, and practical issues in kinetic and operational artworks in preparation for a 2023 summer internship with the Foundation. As part of this internship, New York University conservation student and co-author adrian hernandez joined the project, contributing to a comprehensive survey of the entire series. Together, we focused on time accuracy, condition assessment, and furthered the scientific analysis and archival research to support our observations.
Broader Implications
By virtue of being made in 1969, the Carnal Clocks contain embedded notions of time tied to both their materials and the cultural moment in which they were created. Their timekeeping ability holds historical, experiential, aesthetic, and functional significance. Over time, the original timekeeping technology has aged, in parallel with changing cultural perceptions of timekeeping. Given today’s expectations for precise and reliable timekeeping and technology—standards that differ from those of Rauschenberg’s era—we sought to explore changes in both the Clocks’ materiality and their functional and cultural context. Our focus on temporal accuracy led to a deeper understanding of this series, guiding us in balancing their original behavior with present-day exhibition needs. In addressing these gaps, we developed a strategy that honors the intricate relationship between time and art—a framework we hope will assist other conservators in navigating and measuring temporal changes, emphasizing a thoughtful approach to conservation.
We conducted a survey of the Carnal Clocks at the Foundation and extended this to a comprehensive assessment of the Clocks in other collections, aided by archival research and collaborations with private stakeholders to discern the differences and similarities among those not housed at the Foundation. This survey involved documenting both the cosmetic and functional conditions of the chassis and faces and developing a connoisseurship of their manufacture to differentiate features that were inherent to the artwork from those that were not. During our survey, we evaluated the potential to enhance the cosmetic condition of the Clocks and identified candidates for upcoming exhibitions based on their electromechanical functionality. This article focuses on the latter, as the Clocks’ representation of time presents unique conservation challenges in preserving their intended experience. After completing the research, we were tasked with offering a recommendation for managing clock drift in future exhibitions.
As the Foundation holds two more chassis than faces, we recommended that the two extra chassis be preserved for the study collection; the study collection consists of works that no longer fully represent the artist’s intent—due to severe cosmetic damage or total loss of function—but remain valuable for material and technical research. After analyzing the electromechanical structure of each of the other Clocks, more than half of the chassis in the collection were selected for time accuracy testing due to our determination that they required little to no treatment. When powered on, discrepancies among these were observed during activation, presenting the challenge of synchronizing the “exhibit-ready” chassis with real time and measuring deviations after several hours of operation. This process raised questions about our perceptions and expectations of time.
Carnal Clocks offers a case study with which to delineate some of the myriad ways in which current conservators value and assess time. Time is a feature of numerous artworks, not only in terms of duration but also in terms of age and historical value. We assess time using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Our quantitative methods center on an experiment designed to measure clock drift and each Carnal Clock’s ability to keep time. Our qualitative methods encompass historical analysis, visual analysis, and archival research. These analyses enabled us to understand the artwork through a more multifaceted perspective.
Accuracy Testing: An Experiment
Preparation
The Foundation articulated the goals of the condition survey: to assess the cosmetic and functional condition of the Clocks and to determine which were in exhibitable condition. The exhibitable chassis would then undergo an experiment to assess their ability to keep time (fig. 4). Another objective was to determine the cause of the Clocks falling out of sync.
Preparing the Carnal Clocks for the experiment required minor treatment, such as replacing degraded cables, plugs, and other components to properly assess functionality. After these adjustments, the chassis that seemed to keep time accurately were deemed suitable for further accuracy testing. For some chassis, it was evident that they could not keep real time in their current state, because they ran too fast or slow, or did not work properly. Preparation also involved visual assessments of the Clock chassis cosmetic condition, noting, for example, instances where damage was too visually distracting and would impact a Clock’s presentation and suitability for exhibition. This condition survey yielded the several Clocks that we determined were exhibitable and could undergo accuracy testing.
The final preparation for the experiment involved assembling all of the chassis. Each was fitted with 48 light bulbs, and the faces were not placed on the chassis to better monitor the electromechanical functions. The chassis were then connected to Smart WiFi Timer Plugs, allowing for simultaneous on/off control as needed, and the artworks’ built-in remotes were used to set the Clocks to the same time.
Data Collection
The experiment was conducted over a two-week period. The Timer Plugs were programmed to turn the Clocks on from 7:00 a.m to 7:00 p.m. The Clocks were on for a total of 102 hours. Within this period, data points were collected between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. every two hours on five different days. The data collection involved measuring the deviation of each Clock’s timekeeping relative to real time. A laptop displaying the real time clock on the website “TIME.IS” served as the reference point. A personal iPhone was used to record a video approximately five minutes before and after the target time. This footage was then reviewed multiple times to precisely calculate the number of seconds each Carnal Clock was running too fast or too slow. Following each time measurement, a multimeter was employed to record the voltage going into each mechanism to verify that each was receiving the same voltage throughout the experiment.
Results and Discussion
All data points were plotted on a graph (fig. 5), with time as the independent variable and clock drift as the dependent variable, representing the variations in how fast or slow the Clocks ran. Initially, the Clocks exhibited a wide range of behaviors, but toward the end of the experiment they began to display a consistent trend: a change of approximately one second (either running increasingly slow or fast) every two hours. No change in the voltage supplied to each mechanism was observed.
During the experiment, some treatment was performed on the mechanisms that had severe clock drift. These treatments included adjusting the output voltage of the transformers and resynchronizing the mechanism with the other Clocks using their remotes. These treatments did not consistently result in reduced clock drift. Additionally, some of the Clocks with severe clock drift did not undergo any treatment and served as controls.
Another aspect we measured was the precision of each mechanism. The synchronous motor of the movement is connected to a camshaft that makes one full rotation every 10 minutes. The camshaft has four edges that trigger an advance in the clock every 2.5 minutes, which is why every light bulb in the Clock is tied to a 2.5-minute interval. The precision of these camshafts, meaning their ability to make a full rotation in 10 minutes, was measured. Out of all the chassis, only one was found to have an imprecise camshaft, which was subsequently replaced during the experiment. Since the remaining camshafts demonstrated precise performance, they were ruled out as a potential cause of clock drift.
Some of the variations in the Clocks in the beginning of the experiment could be attributed to the removal of dust, dirt, or corrosion accumulating at various contact points, particularly in hard-to-reach areas within the movement: as the Clocks operated, the mechanical action of their moving components may have dislodged this debris, reducing impediments to accurate timekeeping. Other forms of “warming up” that we are currently unaware of could also be the reason for these fluctuations.
Additionally, there was a simultaneous major clock drift seen across all chassis in the experiment between hour 36 and hour 60, which suggests that this instance of clock drift had the same cause. The cause of this drift could be a fluctuation in power due to the Timer Plugs or the power being supplied to the building, but there was no way to verify this during the experiment.
Without isolating each of these variables—such as the effects of resynchronizing, changing transformer voltage, dislodged debris between contact points, other “warming up” phenomena, the use of Timer Plugs, and the reliability of building power—it is difficult to definitively determine which had an effect on clock drift.
Conclusions from Testing
Based on the behavior of the chassis at the end of the time accuracy testing, the data suggests that the Clocks will experience about 1 second of clock drift (either operating too fast or too slow) every 2 hours. This translates to a discrepancy of about 12 seconds behind or ahead of real time over a 24-hour period. Over the duration of 30 days, this drift accumulates to about 360 seconds, or 6 minutes. Each light bulb in the outer ring represents 2.5 minutes, which equates to a 6-minute difference (or about two or three light bulb positions). We had some difficulty distinguishing a time difference between two or three light bulbs across different Clocks. Even with our extensive familiarity with the artwork, it took several minutes and repeated glances to notice these variations. This is a subtlety we expect most exhibition viewers would also find hard to perceive. Moreover, the chassis are showcased with their faces, which further obscures the light bulbs and their exact positions.
More research could be done to isolate each of the variables in our experiment and test their effectiveness; however, this would require significant intervention, and additional testing could result in wear and tear that would limit the lifespan of the nearly 60-year-old components. We recommended to the Foundation that future research should focus on solutions that would be less interventive, such as testing different Timer Plugs. Given the need to prioritize minimally interventive treatments to preserve the lifespan of the work, we recommended resynchronizing the Clocks by using each of their remotes when the clock drift becomes too severe. The experiment confirmed that the Carnal Clocks would always be out of sync with real time and supported the notion that resistance to standard timekeeping might be embedded in their mechanics. This raised a further question: Have the Clocks always been out of sync with each other and with real time? To explore this, we conducted archival research to help us get a sense of their synchronization in the past.
Past Iterations: Always Out of Time
The Carnal Clocks have been featured in numerous exhibitions since their creation. However, there is no available data to determine how far out of sync they were with respect to real time during these past displays. Archival photographs and recordings of these exhibits reveal that the Clocks have likely never been perfectly synchronized with each other. We compared the Clocks’ original 1969 debut, in simultaneous exhibitions at Ace Gallery in Los Angeles and Leo Castelli Gallery in New York, with later exhibitions, Robert Rauschenberg: Haywire at Aktionsforum Praterinsel in Munich (1997), and two 1998 venues of Rauschenberg’s traveling 1997–99 retrospective: the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.
The most pronounced differences between Clocks were observed in an archival photograph depicting the three works on view at the Leo Castelli Gallery exhibit, in which the hour bulbs lagged by at least one position, suggesting a time difference of as much as thirty minutes, given that the hour bulbs advance every half-hour (Burckhardt 1969a; 1969b). Later observations show similar discrepancies: video documentation from the 1997 Haywire exhibition, attended by Rauschenberg, indicates the Clocks were roughly fifteen minutes apart (six minute bulbs) (“Opening and exhibition footage” 1997). At the Bilbao exhibition, a possible thirty-minute discrepancy was noted between two Clocks in the background, corresponding to at least a five-bulb difference (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation 1998), and in Houston, an approximate ten-minute difference—four minute bulbs—was evident (“Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective: Exhibition” 1998). While the exact degree of asynchronization is difficult to determine from the records alone, several bulb positions appear visibly offset from one another in several exhibition documents.
Due to the absence of other precise records, these archival materials provide the best available insight into their historical operation and behavior, offering a valuable, albeit imperfect, glimpse into their performance over time. This comparative analysis revealed that the Clocks had consistently been out of sync during past exhibitions, with the extent of their asynchrony varying over time. This irregular drift raised important questions for us, like: What constitutes an “acceptable” level of drift for these artworks? And, at what point does this drift become “unacceptable”? To address these questions, we investigated Rauschenberg’s own statements about time and its significance in his work.
Rauschenberg on Time
Robert Rauschenberg’s thoughts on time can be gleaned from his statements about time and the modifications he made to the Carnal Clocks during his lifetime. These actions often reflected a prioritization of visitor engagement with his art and an emphasis on facilitating this experience through institutional public programming.
Public Programming
Public programming was an important consideration in exhibiting the Carnal Clocks from the outset. In a 1969 article in Hollywood Citizen-News, Jeanne Good notes that all the light bulbs in the Clocks in the Ace Gallery exhibit in Los Angeles turned on at 9 o’clock, whereas at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York, all the light bulbs illuminated at 12 o’clock. The Clocks were thus synchronized across two different time zones, making them share a connection that transcended geographic boundaries. Viewers on both coasts would have a simultaneous experience of the Carnal Clocks during their concurrent openings.
Another interesting decision regarding the public experience was evident during the 1997 Haywire exhibit, which took place at night and where an assistant is seen using the remote to activate the 12 o’clock function. It seems that the artist or gallery chose to set them forward to ensure that visitors could experience the spectacle of the 12 o’clock function before leaving the event. This decision reflects how important the public’s experience of the Carnal Clocks was to the artist and influenced the extent to which the Clocks adhered to real time.
Statements about Time
Rauschenberg invoked time in numerous other works, especially in his paintings. For example, Rauschenberg referred to his White Paintings from 1951 as clocks, in part due to how they reflect changes in light and shadows in the space in front of them (Rauschenberg 1999). Some paintings, such as Reservoir and Third Time Painting, both made in 1961, incorporate physical analog clocks into the canvas. Quotes from the artist reveal his poetic understanding of time. For example, he remarked: “Carnal Clocks could be considered offensive. I think Carnal Clocks was racy. My flesh tells the time marked by real people who are all still living” (Rose 1987, 100). In this quotation, time is linked to the imprints left by individuals on his flesh. The carnal element of these Clocks, the close-up nudes of the artist’s friends, connects the human body and time. The reflective surfaces of the Clocks show the viewer’s body transposed over silkscreened images of body parts on the surface (fig. 6). Depending on the time, the light bulbs selectively illuminate the evocative images, highlighting each image of flesh as a timed exposure. In this way, the Carnal Clocks can metaphorically mirror how lovers’ attentions change and their bodies drift in and out of sync.
Maintaining Accuracy through Modifications
The Carnal Clocks use rotating synchronous motors to keep time; the rotations of the motors synchronize with the frequency of the power they receive (note 1). European power has a frequency of 50Hz, and the United States has a frequency of 60Hz. The US-made synchronous motors would make fewer rotations with a lower frequency, causing the Clocks to run 17% slower in Europe.
In 1998, Per Biorn came up with a solution to facilitate their exhibition in Europe and explained the intervention in an interview with fellow E.A.T. collaborator Julie Martin: he decided to install a transformer that would accept both European and US power (Martin et al. 2004). This transformer converted the alternating current (AC) power from the wall to a direct current (DC) supply. This was then fed into an inverter that Biorn added to change the DC power back into an AC power with 60Hz frequency that powered the synchronous motor. With this voltage modification, the synchronous motors could maintain accurate timekeeping regardless of the power supply, ensuring consistency in their performance anywhere in the world. This intervention suggests that some degree of accuracy with respect to real time did matter to both Biorn and Rauschenberg.
Shifting Expectations of Time
Societal expectations of time have likely changed between the 1960s and the present due to changes in how the accuracy of time is maintained and measured, the frequency of scheduled public programs designed to attract visitors to galleries and museums, and the growing demands on institutional staff. These broader changes were key considerations in our recommendations to the Foundation regarding the present-day management of the Clocks and their accuracy.
The Evolution of Clocks
The artworks are analog synchronous clocks, meaning that they lack a digital display and use hour and minute markings that have to be interpreted to read the current time. They incorporate synchronous motors, which depend on the frequency of the power supply for accuracy. As such, these artworks fall squarely at a specific moment in clock technology. Analog synchronous clocks were available and popular from the 1930s through the 1960s; they combined affordability with accuracy and required connection to the electric grid (Pook 2015; Marsh 2024). In the 1960s, advances in technology created the conditions for digital clocks and quartz clocks to outperform the accuracy and affordability of analog synchronous clocks, causing a reduction in their consumption and production (Pook 2015; Thompson 2017). Additionally, in 1967, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) changed the basis for the standard unit of measurement for the second: the source went from the Earth’s rotation to the frequency of a specific atomic transition (Barrell 1968; NIST 2004). The Carnal Clocks are part of this important decade in the evolution of time-measuring technologies and the diminishing demand for analog synchronous clocks.
With shifting technologies came increasing degrees of accuracy in timekeeping. Today, internet connectivity allows for constant, passive calibration of digital clocks on mobile devices such that synchronization is nearly instantaneous. The time on different atomic clocks is also easily searched on the internet allowing for quick comparison. This degree of accuracy, automation, access, and affordability is not embedded in the behavior of the Carnal Clocks—their lack of accuracy while on view interrupts the experience of predominant modes of timekeeping in the present.
Public Programming Today
The relationship between the public and art institutions is also different than what it was in the 1960s which has affected visitor expectations for public programming. Over the past few decades, several changes in funding sources for the arts have shaped this relationship between the public and the galleries and museums where the Carnal Clocks will be loaned. These changes can be attributed to numerous factors, including the establishment of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 as a way to distribute federal funding (Lanza 2017), subsequent federal budget cuts for the arts (Koch 1998), globalization’s role in making more pervasive the spectacularization of exhibitions (Enwezor 2008; Mathur 2012), and the corporatization of museums (Fraser 2006; Janes 2007). These conditions have created pressures on arts institutions to compete for visitor attention and show growth in attendance numbers, which have led to a trend in numerous blockbuster exhibitions to draw in more crowds (Fraser 2006; Coates 2019). Many of these blockbuster exhibitions rely on spectacle as an attraction. An increase in public programming can also be traced to efforts by institutions to foster more community engagement, especially during the early 1990s and more recently 2020s (Takahisa 2025).
In many ways, the culture of public engagement in art institutions in the 1960s through the 1990s continues today, but perhaps to a higher degree. Indeed, during our internship, we met a curator who wanted to organize public programming around the 12 o’clock function for an upcoming exhibition with a Carnal Clock. This prompted us to consider whether today’s museum audiences should experience the Clocks and their clock drift as they may have been in the 1960s, or whether they should be adjusted to provide more accurate timekeeping to meet contemporary expectations of time. Because Rauschenberg seemed to prioritize the spectacle of the 12 o’clock function, we considered how this spectacle might translate to the expectations of contemporary exhibition audiences.
Staffing Constraints and Limited Time
As a result of different funding models and sources for art institutions, as well as increasing numbers of artworks that require complex installations, numerous pressures have been placed on staff at these institutions such that they often have limited time for artwork maintenance (Fraser 2006; Halperin 2023). One of the deliverables of our internship and research was to recommend a solution for clock drift for the Foundation. Our recommendation needed to consider that staff at loaning institutions likely do not have the time necessary to fully understand how the Carnal Clocks function. The solution for clock drift needed to be as straightforward and expeditious as possible.
Values in Decision Making
Before deciding on a recommendation for how accurate the Clocks needed to be, we had to weigh the various ways we value time in this artwork.
These artworks represent a point in timekeeping history as analog synchronous clocks. As such, they carry inherent age and historical value, characteristics that have been defined by Alois Riegl ([1903] 1996) and have been used by conservators to delineate significant aspects of a work. Age value is based on a work’s “outmoded appearance” (Riegl [1903] 1996, 72). The age value would be preserved by allowing the Clocks to go through their natural clock drift completely uninterrupted, until eventually they became completely dysfunctional. Additionally, the interior components in the movement are larger than equivalent components found in today’s electronics, which also date the work and impart a sense of its age. To focus only on age value would mean to essentially render the Clocks unexhibitable, which is at odds with preserving their “use value” (Riegl [1903] 1996, 79). Use value refers to the desire to keep an artwork functional for a specific purpose (Riegl [1903] 1996).
The Carnal Clocks also recall a significant moment in the evolution of time-measuring technologies and the declining use of analog synchronous clocks, which gives them historical value. Historical value is associated with the artwork’s “original state of creation” (Riegl [1903] 1996, 75). The Clocks’ synchronous motors mark their manufacture in the 1960s, and the transformers and inverters mark their modification in the 1990s. These components become symbols of the decades in which they were made, especially because exact replacements are no longer readily available. Most conservators would resist replacing these original components with more recent, smaller, and more accurate ones, as doing so would compromise the artwork’s historical integrity. Further, the Clocks mark the innovative collaborations between artists and engineers that were the result of E.A.T. This collaboration created the conditions that allowed these new technologies to be considered art such that they could be displayed in galleries, which was a spectacle in itself; for example, Geiger notes that “the pioneering activities of E.A.T. laid the foundation for the acceptance of technology in the art world” (Geiger 2005, 22).
The artist’s intent is also valuable. The artist deliberately chose to make the Clocks exhibitable and synchronized with real time across time zones and continents. Still, the evidence suggests that the Clocks were often out of sync with both each other and real time. While this asynchrony can be attributed to the limits of the technology available to Rauschenberg in 1969, there is also evidence that he enjoyed the asynchrony in his incorporation of carnality. Different images of body parts light up as time passes during the exhibition. These static images on the acrylic are changed by and intertwined with the reflections of the bodies of viewers. Each reflection of the body makes a temporary print on the surface of the Clocks. Conceptually, lovers’ bodies are not always in sync, and so it seems intentional that the Clocks are not either. The 12 o’clock function also served this purpose, as it could serve as a summons for the public to gather in front of the works to see the spectacle of all the bulbs lighting up. When the Carnal Clocks illuminate at this function, all images of bodies on the surface are visible in front of what may be a mass of onlookers.
One must also value the time, attention, and expectations of the audience for the Clocks. Rauschenberg certainly considered these in the 1960s and 1990s, as in the preceding examples where he synchronized Clocks across time zones for their debut exhibition, made modifications for the Clocks to keep accurate time in Munich, and manually advanced the works to the 12 o’clock function for the benefit of viewers at the Haywire opening. Further, if the Clocks are too far out of sync with real time, the spectacle of the 12 o’clock function loses some of its grandeur. However, having the Clocks rigorously synchronized with real time would also result in a loss of their idiosyncratic character. By exploring the varying ways that these Clocks enable an experience with time, we were able to unravel some of the different dimensions of significance tied to their materiality and behavior. How do we balance their intrinsic value, the artist’s intent, and expectations of contemporary audiences in our recommendation for addressing clock drift?
Conclusions
We anticipate that the Carnal Clocks will inevitably experience clock drift, although gradually over time. The consistency of the Clock mechanisms’ accuracy in their earlier operation remains uncertain; however, both archival records and our testing support the conclusion that some variation in synchronization is inherent to their functioning. Their inaccuracy worsens over time, and this drift may impact how they are experienced. When this happens, we know that the Clocks can easily be reset with the remote.
We presented these findings to the Foundation and VoCA staff in August 2023, and we all discussed our options. Staff from both institutions generally agreed with the conclusions we drew from our research. While no firm decisions were made at this meeting, many of their considerations were taken into account in the preceding text.
Our recommendation for future exhibition of the Clocks would be to resynchronize them when they become somewhere between seven and ten minutes behind or ahead of real time. This range was determined based on our findings, which indicate that a drift of seven to ten minutes is an acceptable variation over a four- to six-week period. This means that they would only need to be resynchronized about once a month, which would minimize the staffing time required to tend to the Clocks while maintaining operational and aesthetic integrity. The use of the remote to resynchronize a Clock is aided by consultation of a manual we created for the work during the project. This amount of drift is a difference of only two light bulbs, which we suspect would not be perceptible to most viewers. This threshold allows for the Clocks to have some variability with respect to each other, maintaining the inherent idiosyncratic behavior of their original clock movements. As a result, we retain the observed asynchrony of the late 1960s—preserving the behavior historically associated with the work—while keeping the Clocks loosely aligned with how we measure real time today.
Analyzing time through a quantitative experiment, historical analysis, comparative analysis, and artist intent has allowed us to make explicit some of the ways that many people value time today. We value time through notions of age and historical value, measurements in seconds, real time, synchronization, accuracy, precision, spectacle, and flesh. Time in the institutional context is centered around the artwork, public programming, labor, and the power grid. By denoting time in this way, this article can be used as a source of comparison, to mark how the ways we experience and value time change in the future. We believe that our careful consideration of these factors, along with the diverse ways in which we perceive and interact with objects of time, can serve as a valuable conservation model for other time-based media artworks reliant on time accuracy that is both historically and materially contingent.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We owe enormous gratitude to Voices in Contemporary Art (VoCA) and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation for providing the space, funding, and guidance for the internship. VoCA played a crucial role in establishing the relationship between the Foundation, the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC), and New York University (NYU). The authors would also like to thank sasha arden, Marion Korb, Caroline Carlsmith, Josephine Jenks, James Webb, and staff at other collections with works by Rauschenberg for their consultation. Daniella and adrian would like to thank Reinhard and Christine for their mentorship, as well as Thomas Roach and Lauren Shadford for facilitating our work and providing feedback. adrian would like to thank the Mellon Foundation for their fellowship in time-based media conservation and NYU staff and faculty for all their support. Daniella would like to acknowledge the WUDPAC faculty, particularly her scientific advisor Dr. Rosie Grayburn, and scientists Dr. Liora Mael and Dr. W. Christian Petersen, for their assistance in carrying out material analysis on the Carnal Clocks, although not mentioned in the article. She would also like to thank Dr. Joelle Wickens and William Donnelly for their support.
NOTE
1. The synchronous motors in Carnal Clocks were manufactured by Synchron. Interestingly, Roy Lichtenstein also employed rotating Synchron motors in his artwork starting in 1966, and the motors moved polycarbonate Rowlux sheets in his collages (Bell 2013).
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SOURCES OF MATERIALS
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DANIELLA BRICEÑO VILLAMIL
Conservation Fellow
Glenstone Museum
ADRIAN HERNANDEZ
Mellon Fellow in Time-Based Media Conservation
Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
REINHARD BEK
Partner
Bek & Frohnert LLC
CHRISTINE FROHNERT
Partner
Bek & Frohnert LLC
Research Scholar and TBM Program Director
Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University