‘Time is nothing more than data visualization’: Max Amato’s TickTock for TV

When your TV is not playing programs, we bet it just sits there without an interesting clock-face telling the time. That could change, thanks to a new app by Brooklyn-based designer Max Amato.
“I was thinking about how time is nothing more than data visualization, and that data has been visualized in basically the same way for hundreds of years,” Amato told Technical.ly Brooklyn. “Now that we have things like Apple TV, smartwatches, etc., we have the freedom to experiment with just how expressive time can be.”

To that end he embarked on a project to rethink how we literally look at time. He and two artists from the Sid Lee Collective teamed up with a creative technologist to create the TickTock for TV app, available in the Apple TV store. The app features 12 different uniquely-designed clock faces that will show up as a screensaver on your TV.
“Some are completely geometric and minimal, others use narrative, quirky typography, and others are contemporary interpretations of ancient time-telling techniques like the hourglass,” Amato said.

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