Die "Erdenklanguhr" The "Earth-Sound Clock"
german / english
Josef Drobar was born
in Pettenbach (Austria) in 1951.
He first became a goldschmith
until the year 1975, where he
came upon the idea of working
with behind-glass-paintings.
A very old house in Innviertel
became his studio. The typical
"Mühlviertel surroundings"
inspired Josef Drobar in his
work.
Behind-glass-painted clocks are
very much in demand on the market
around the world.
Behind-glass-painting reaches
it's prime in the 19th century
from Augsburg through Böhmen
und Mähren until it came
to the Mühlviertel in Austria.
These clocks are still being
painted with the original technology
of the 19th century. In the beginning,
as well as today, the behind-glass-painting
is used for almost exclusive
pictures. Behind-glass-painted
clocks were seen very seldom,
because the quality and the strength
of the glass which was used for
the clock-face was uneven, it
always varied. And therefor it
was very bad qualified for transport.
A few of the first behind-glass-painted
clocks are exposed in museum.
The style of the behind-glass-clocks
of Josef Drobar is unique, because
he takes his inspirations especially
from the romantic Austria surroundings.
The fundamental idea is, that
the clock become a charming and
decorative piece combined with
tradition.
The biggest clock in behind-glass-painting
ever created was the center of
the stage setting when the first
computer-acoustic symphony "Earth
Sound" was going to be performed
for the first time.
This world premiere of "Earth-Sound"
took place during the Ars Electonica
1982 in the Linzer Brucknerhall.
In creating this clock, the artist
Josef Drobar combined traditional
handicraft with the most modern
computer technology. The oval
face was painted with self-made
"Earth-Colours" in
the technology of behind-glass-painting.
Instead of the usual clock-strokes
every hour new compositions -
produced by plain earth-sounds
- are called off by the clockwork
in a computer system.
The composition for all these
strokes were composed by computer-specialists
Hubert Bognermayr and Harald
Zuschrader and were realized
in the computerstudio of the
"Electronic Game Warden-Hut".
At the performance the "Earth-Sound-Clock"
preluded each movement of the
"Earth-Sound-Symphony"
with it's "Earth-Strokes"
and therefor it was musically
part of the composition piece.
Angaben zur Uhr:
Total Height 3,52 m
Face 72,00 kg
Frame 54,00 kg
Clock-Work 127,00 kg
Undercarriage 51,00 kg
Pendulum 6,00 kg
Weights, je 30,00 kg
Resin-lac
and Colour 1,50 kg
Total Weight 354,50 kg
Ausstellungen:
Die "Erdenklanguhr" war als Botschafterin für Österreichisches Kunsthandwerk
bei zahlreichen Werbeveranstaltungen des Tourismusverbandes
europaweit unterwegs, u.a. in
Hamburg,
Berlin,
Darmstadt,
Wien,
Basel,
Zürich,
Schloss Grafenegg,
Sharjah (VAE)
