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{{Short description|Art installation by Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel in New York City, US (installed 1999)}}
{{italic title}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2016}}
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{{Infobox artwork
[[File:Metronome in Union Square, New York City.JPG|thumb|right|upright=1.3|Full view of the ''Metronome'' in 2015]]
| title = Metronome
| painting_alignment =
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| wikidata =
| image = Metronome in Union Square, New York City.JPG
| image_upright =
| alt =
| caption = Full view of the ''Metronome'' in 2015
| artist = [[Jones/Ginzel|Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel]]
| year =
| completion_date = {{start date|1999|10|26}} <br> (modified {{start date|2020|09|19}})
| catalogue =
| medium =
| movement =
| subject = Measurement of time
| height_metric = <!-- (i.e. in metric units) -->
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| height_imperial = <!-- (i.e. in imperial units) -->
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| metric_unit = cm <!-- Note: this parameter must either use the value given or not be included -->
| imperial_unit = in <!-- Note: this parameter must either use the value given or not be included -->
| weight =
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| museum =
| city = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], [[United States]]
| coordinates =
| owner = [[The Related Companies|Related Companies]]
| accession =
| preceded_by = <!-- preceding work by the same artist -->
| followed_by = <!-- next work by the same artist -->
| module =
| website = [https://jonesginzel.com/project/metronome Official website]
}}
 
'''''Metronome''''' is a large public [[installation art|art installation]] located along [[14th Street (Manhattan)|the south end]] of [[Union Square, Manhattan|Union Square]] in [[New York City]]. The work was commissioned by the [[The Related Companies|Related Companies]], developers of One Union Square South, with the participation of the [[Public Art Fund]] and the [[Municipal Art Society]]. The $4.2 million provided by the developer makes it one of the largest private commissions of public art.
 
The artwork was created by [[Jones/Ginzel|Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel]] and consists of several sections, including a round circular void from which puffs of white steam arewere at one point released throughout the day, and a clock made of large orange [[LED]] digits. Installation of ''Metronome'' began in February 1999, and its dedication took place on October 26, 1999.
 
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== The clock ==
[[File:Union Square New York April 2016 3.JPG|thumb|left|upright=1.2|View from a distance]]
[[File:Metronome November 2020.jpg|thumb|right|View of ''Metronome'' in November 2020, after the clock display was modified to a [[Climate Clock|climate clock]]]]
On the left side of the work is a set of fifteen large [[LED]] digits, called "The Passage", which display the time in [[24-hour]] format. The seven leftmost digits show the time in conventional [[24-hour clock|24-hour format]], as hours (2 digits), minutes (2 digits), seconds (2 digits), tenths of a second (1 digit). The seven rightmost digits display the amount of time remaining in a 24-hour day, as tenths of a second (1 digit), seconds (2 digits), minutes (2 digits), hours (2 digits). The center digit represents hundredths of a second.
On the left side of the work is a set of fifteen large [[LED]] digits, called "The Passage", which display the time in [[24-hour]] format. The seven leftmost digits show the time in conventional [[24-hour clock|24-hour format]], as hours (2 digits), minutes (2 digits), seconds (2 digits), tenths of a second (1 digit). The seven rightmost digits display the amount of time remaining in a 24-hour day, as tenths of a second (1 digit), seconds (2 digits), minutes (2 digits), hours (2 digits). The center digit represents hundredths of a second. For instance, if the clock reads "<samp>195641287180304</samp>", it means that time is 19:56 (7:56 [[12-hour clock|PM]]) and 41.2 seconds, and that there are 04 hours, 03 minutes, and 18.7 seconds remaining in the day.<ref>{{cite web|date=2017-08-09|title=Metronome in Union Square, New York Explained|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-09/metronome-in-union-square-new-york-explained|access-date=2020-09-21|website=Bloomberg}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=2005-03-11|title=What's the Deal with that Union Square... Clock... Thing?|url=http://gothamist.com/miscellaneous/whats-the-deal-with-that-union-square-clock-thing|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111185941/https://gothamist.com/miscellaneous/whats-the-deal-with-that-union-square-clock-thing|url-status=dead|archive-date=2020-11-11|access-date=2020-09-21|website=Gothamist}}</ref>
 
For instance, if the clock reads "<tt>195641189180304</tt>", it means that time is 19:56 (7:56 [[12-hour clock|PM]]) and 41.1 seconds, and that there are 04 hours, 03 minutes, and 18.9 seconds remaining in the day. For a few months in 2005, the clock on ''Metronome'' did not give the time of day, but instead counted down the time until the [[International Olympic Committee]] was to announce the host city of the [[2012 Summer Olympics]].<ref>[http{{Cite news|last=Kurutz|first=Steven|date=2005-05-01|title=For a Mysterious Clock, Method in Its Madness|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.barrypopiknytimes.com/index.php2005/new_york_city05/entry01/metronomenyregion/ The Big Apple: Metronome]thecity/for-a-mysterious-clock-method-in-its-madness.html|access-date=2020-09-21|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> New York City ultimately lost [[New York City bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics|its bid to be host city to the 2012 Olympics]] to [[London]].
 
The clock showed the wrong figures for over a year in 2010–2011 until, in June 2011, the dial-up connection it had previously used to obtain an [[atomic time]] reading was updated.<ref>[http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/in-union-square-15-numbers-add-up-once-again-to-time/ "In Union Square, 15 Numbers Add Up, Once Again, to Time" ''New York Times'' June 13 2011] Retrieved June 14, 2011</ref>
 
On September 19, 2020, ''Metronome'' became a [[Climate Clock|climate clock]] as it started showing the time remaining until the [[Earth]]'s [[carbon budget]] is used up as a result of concerns related to [[global warming]] above the 1.5°C threshold that was outlined in the [[Paris Agreement]]. The fifteen digits counted down the years (1 digit), days (3 digits), hours (2 digits), minutes (2 digits), and seconds (2 digits) from left to right, in conventional 24-hour format with spaces to the left of each digit. The modified display was devised by artists Andrew Boyd and Gan Golan.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Moynihan|first=Colin|date=2020-09-21|title=A New York Clock That Told Time Now Tells the Time Remaining|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/20/arts/design/climate-clock-metronome-nyc.html|access-date=2020-09-21|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Kraus|first=Rachel|date=2020-09-20|title=Famed NYC clock is counting down to Earth's climate change 'deadline'|url=https://mashable.com/article/climate-change-clock-nyc/|access-date=2020-09-21|website=Mashable}}</ref>
 
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''Metronome'' contemplates time: geological, solar, lunar, daily, hourly, and momentarily, revealing the fractions of seconds in the life of a city&nbsp;– and of a human being.
 
... [[New York City]] pulses with enormous energy. There is an ever-present sense that an underlying source makes the city a hot spot, active with desire, intellect, pathos. Certain places on earth are geothermally active; [[Manhattan]]'s streets release vaporous plumes from a plethora of fumaroles. The ephemerality of this steam in the streets suggests the volatility of the place. ''Metronome'' poses as a vent for this energy -– an oracular center for the public to gauge their momentary presence, their mortality, from which the city can be examined as a vital infrastructure.
 
Viewers are confronted and reassured, confused, enlightened and asked to question the moment of their existence in relation to their natural and built environment.
 
Ultimately, the work is an ode to mortality and the impossibility of knowing time.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kristin Jones |first=Andrew Ginzel |title=''Metronome'' Project Description |url=http://www.jonesginzel.com/PROJECTS/metronome/metronometxt.html |accessdateaccess-date=February 15, 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081119135824/http://www.jonesginzel.com/PROJECTS/metronome/metronometxt.html |archivedatearchive-date=November 19, 2008 }}</ref>}}
 
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200px">
File:Union Square Metronome detail (clock).jpg|''Metronome'' (detail&nbsp;– "The Passage")
 
File:99A Metronome 7 (108.2KB).jpg|''Metronome'' (detail&nbsp;– "The Infinity" and "The Source")
File:99A_Metronome_6.jpg|''Metronome'' (detail&nbsp;– "The Relic")
File:Union Square (3982592596).jpg|Another view of "The Relic"
</gallery>
 
== Reception ==
[[File:Metronome (public artwork in New York City).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|As viewed from the southern end of [[Union Square, Manhattan|Union Square]]]]
''Metronome'' and One Union Square, the building to which it is attached, have not been well received by critics or the public. Kristin Jones, co-creator of the work, complains that it is "the most unloved piece of public art in the city".<ref>''The New Yorker'', "Talk of the Town", July 4, 2005</ref> Among ''Metronome's'' critics are ''[[New York Times]]'' architecture critic [[Herbert Muschamp]], who described it as "Pretentious ... the artists' basic miscalculation was to assume that a large surface called for comparably big forms ... It's just some space in a box with a leaky hole in it."<ref>''[[New York Times]]'', "[https://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/02/arts/art-architecture-the-ominous-message-of-a-box-on-union-square.html?scp=8&sq=metronome&pagewanted=all The Ominous Message of a Box on Union Square]", Herbert Muschamp. January 2, 2000.</ref> The ''[[New York Post]]'' put One Union Square at #2 on its "10 Buildings We Love to Hate" list, calling it "a grotesque modern nightmare."<ref>''The New York Post'', "10 Buildings We Love to Hate", January 9, 2000</ref> James Gaynor of the ''[[New York Observer]]'' wrote of ''Metronome'', "Fail so big that no one can do anything about it ... New York now has its very own [[Wailing Wall]], a site (and sight) of cultural pilgrimage where the death of aesthetics can be contemplated."<ref>''[[New York Observer]]'', "[http://neptune.observer.com/node/42063?page=all Citizens Panic! Art Eats Building on Union Square!]{{dead link|date=March 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}", James Gaynor. October 11, 1999.</ref>
 
In various [[letters to the editor]], the public has written of ''Metronome'': "Well-intentioned, but ultimately flat, corporate art. It is a confounding installation based on a contrived theme ('the impossibility of knowing Time')";<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/11/nyregion/l-union-sq-art-wall-is-large-but-ultimately-just-flat-549606.html |title=Union Sq. Art Wall Is Large But, Ultimately, Just Flat -– Letter |publisherwork=NYTimes.com[[The New York Times]] |date=July 11, 1999 |accessdateaccess-date=February 20, 2010}}</ref> "[a] gigantic waste of time, space, and money [that] seems like a satire on all public monuments";<ref name="nyt_oct_6_2002">{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/06/nyregion/new-york-voices-public-opinion.html |title=New York Voices -– New York Voices -– Public Opinion |publisherwork=NYTimes.com[[The New York Times]] |date=October 6, 2002 |accessdateaccess-date=February 20, 2010}}</ref> and "a colossal waste of a facade".<ref name="nyt_oct_6_2002" /> However, one respondent felt that ''Metronome'' was "a large and very elegant digital hourglass; time 'pours' from the numbers on the right to the left ... The other elements are likewise very thoughtful and sophisticated ruminations on time, its passage and the ways in which we mark it."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/16/arts/l-union-square-ruminations-on-time-316121.html |title=UNION SQUARE -– UNION SQUARE -– Ruminations on Time -– Letter |publisherwork=NYTimes.com[[The New York Times]] |date=January 16, 2000 |accessdateaccess-date=February 20, 2010}}</ref>
 
== See also ==
{{-}}
* [[Debt clock]]
* [[Doomsday Clock]]
 
== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}
 
== Further reading ==
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== External links ==
{{Commonscat}}
*[httphttps://www.andrewginzeljonesginzel.com/JONESGINZEL/PROJECTS/ALLproject/metronome/metronome.html Artists' pages dedicated to the work]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060516053119/http://metronome.related.com/ Developer's site dedicated to the work]
*[http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=20140 Google Answer's page with helpful information and links]
 
{{Public art in Manhattan}}
{{Union Square, Manhattan}}
 
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