Waste Time Beautifully · C2

Line — zoom through time

John Maeda for Shiseido, 1997 (cal1.class) — rebuilt as a web component. Standalone copy, no build step.

scale — · counter —

Controls: move the pointer along the diagonal to aim; press and hold to zoom continuously into that moment; release and you float back out. Full zoom is exactly 60 seconds, and the release is symmetric.

Time as a single line — diagonal, bottom-left to top-right, the detail every written description of this applet gets wrong. Maeda's note: it reflects the relativity and comparability of time intervals. The zoom is the content.

Spec

originalcal1.class, 12,339 bytes, single class, self-contained (Java 1.1) dimensions460×400, black ground, Helvetica throughout collectionSFMOMA 99.554 zoom plateaus72px per day / hour / minute / second — scn 1 → 72 → 1,728 → 103,680 → 6,220,800 px/day easingcounter at 20 increments/sec over segments [150, 250, 350, 450] labelsfont = min(72, unit spacing); text under 5px degrades to a line; gray ramps 128→255 as a unit matures; the current unit is always red period quirksMac JVM patch capped zoom at hour level; an unused HAPPY NEW YEAR string ships in the bytecode tests33 (Vitest + fast-check)