Your Turn Counts was Commissioned by the Exploratorium for the April, 2013 opening of their new building on the Embarcadero.

It counts the number of turns a person makes on a little crank. Each column of numbers was created as if it was made during different historical period up to the present. In fact, the final retinal display circuit was created by someone else, a young person who had come of age during the era of digital technology.

 

The 1’s digits are engraved into wooden dial.

The 10’s digits are drilled into a drum made from welded steel.

The 100’s digits are painted onto falling metal plates taken from a manual cash register.

The 1,000’s digits are on a counter taken from an electric pinball machine.

The 10’000’s digits glow within a “nixie tube,” which utilized vacuum tube technology.

The 100,000’s digits are made up if magnetic “flip dots.”

The million’s digits are shown on a very common 7-segment LED display.

The ten-million’s are shown as jpeg images on a microprocessor driven LED screen.