Chrono-Shredder by Susanna Hertrich

How does one understand time? The hands of a watch always circle back at the end of 24 hours, and a wall calendar only awakens every 30 days. Chrono-Shredder, a piece exhibited from 2007-2012, is German designer Susanna Hertrich’s conceptualization of the passing of the days. A scroll of paper container with a printed date is displayed and consequently passed through a shredder, keeping a live-time account. A counterexample to Siren Elise Wihelmson’s 365 Knitting Clock that uses time as a generative motivation, Chrono-Shredder frames time as a destruction and entropic force. The tangible evidence lies in a pile on the floor, the representation accumulating and physically capturing an ever-changing temporality. Both a functional calendar and a clock, Chrono-Shredder will soon be available in a limited edition release.