The Art of Distraction

I was led down a wonderfully distracting rabbit hole last week by <a href="https://twitter.com/drstruthers?lang=en" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Dr Rebecca Struthers</a>, whose recently published book <a href="https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/rebecca-struthers/hands-of-time/9781529339031/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">The Hands of Time: A Watchmaker’s History</a> charts the history of watches and timekeeping. It’s one of those books where you find yourself googling ideas and images as you’re reading, and it led me into some geeky nooks and crannies on the internet. Her book is a brilliant example of rich history-writing that reaches into many subject areas because it examines the past through an unexpected lens — in this case a history of time told through some of the ingenious devices humans have invented to measure it. Mechanical watches emerged relatively recently, in the last 600 years or so, but there is evidence that attempts at timekeeping have been ongoing over the past 44,000 years. It’s a fascinating story of technological development and it’s also a cultural and social history of Europe. Struthers weaves together a narrative about the gradual democratisation of timekeeping that includes aspects of religion, trade, migration, scientific ideas and the Industrial Revolution. She explains how all of these things impacted on the design and craftsmanship of watches. <a href="https://thegallerycompanion.medium.com/the-art-of-distraction-28070d9fdc65">Visit Now</a>