Hours Remaining in the Life of Allan Giddy is a solar-powered, digital, backwards-counting machine. I calculated how many hours I would have left to live, based on the average life span of a New Zealand male born in the 1960s, then programmed this information into my small machine and set it running. I took care to allow the machine to retain memory during ‘night sleep’ periods, when the display disappears and the machine counts more slowly. While counting the hours remaining until my demise, this machine is in fact an autonomous agent, freed from its maker; its rhythms and its pace towards its own demise result from its independent reaction to the light around it.
Materials: electronics, LCDs, solar panels, chair, light bulb, broken light bulb
Dimensions: 50 x 50 x 100 cm