#Physical artifact meaning tv#

The right image shows a contemporary orrery. The middle image shows a virtual reconstruction. Right image from the Merchantville Lodge #119.Īn orrery is a mechanical model of the solar system. The left image shows the Antikythera, the oldest known orrery. Second image from the youtube channel HISTORY. Sources: Annelisa Stephan (2012) Voting with the Ancient Greeks. Sometimes a single black marble or cube was sufficient to reject a proposition or an applicant, yielding the expression 'blackballing'. After everyone voted, the box was opened so that all members could immediately see the results. The boxes had a small opening where each member would covertly insert a white marble to mean 'yes', or a black marble (or black cube) to mean 'no'. In the 19th century, freemasons and fraternities started to use ballot boxes to decide who should be included in the group or who should be expelled (see right image). Secret voting was also in use, but it is unclear how (perhaps using 'a contraption to obscure the urn into which a voter was placing his hand'). By the mid-4th century BC, a more elaborate method of secret voting was introduced based on bronze ballots whose difference could only be felt by touch.

#Physical artifact meaning tv#

The middle image is a modern reconstruction from a TV documentary. The left image is a detail of a Greek wine cup from the 5th century BC, and is one of the earliest known depictions of the act of voting.

Adult male citizens were invited to express their opinion by dropping a pebble in an urn: a white pebble meant 'yes' and a black pebble meant 'no'. Voting in Greece was introduced in the 5th century BC.

The earliest participatory visualizations were probably voting systems. Left image from Wikimedia commons, middle image by youtube user Michael Shen, right image by youtube user Ryan Schade. Wikipedia article Water clock (Indianapolis). English (2012) Inspiration: The Water Clocks of Bernard Gitton. Holmes (2016) Object of Intrigue: Ancient Persian Water Clocks. Sources: Wikipedia article on water clocks. It is more than 9 meters tall and shows the current hour and minute. The second and third image show the largest water clock ever made, built by French physicist-turned-artist Bernard Gitton in 1988. This basic system has been improved upon many times across different continents, yielding more precise measurements and eliminating the need for manually resetting the mechanism. This was used for example in Persia to ensure fair irrigation practices. The passage of time was observed by counting how many times the bowl overflowed and its content had to be poured back in the larger pot. These existed back in the 16th century BC. The oldest water clocks simply consisted of a pierced bowl placed in a larger pot filled with water (see left image, Persian artefact from 400 BC). Image taken from en. (photo Denise Schmandt-Besserat)Ī water clock (or clepsydra) is an instrument where time is measured by regulating a flow of liquid. Denise Schmandt-Besserat (1996) How Writing Came About. Sources: Denise Schmandt-Besserat (1999) Tokens: The Cognitive Significance. ' Clay tokens suggest that physical objects were used to externalize information, support visual thinking and enhance cognition way before paper and writing were invented. 19) No doubt patterning, the presentation of data in a particular configuration, was developed to highlight special items (Luria 1976. The token system thus encouraged manipulating data by abstracting all possible variables. For instance, the tokens could be ordered in special columns according to types of merchandise, entries and expenditures donors or recipients. According to an eminent archaeologist (Schmandt-Besserat, 1999): 'Whereas words consist of immaterial sounds, the tokens were concrete, solid, tangible artifacts, which could be handled, arranged and rearranged at will. The earliest data visualizations were likely physical: built by arranging stones or pebbles, and later, clay tokens.