Dust of Time

Store: Polvere di Tempo (Dust of Time)
Address: Via del Moro, 59, Rome (Trastevere)
Online Store: www.polvereditempo.it

Artisan: Adrian Anibal Rodriguez

It is that time of the year. And the AQA Series is here for you with a story of a store where everything is about TIME.

Dust of Time… Or as it says in Italian, Polvere di Tempo. This little, cozy shop offers as much nostalgic and warm setting as its name suggests. The green doors, with the Christmas lights on at the time when I visited added a special magical air. Located in a very Roman neighborhood, Trastevere, on one of the winding narrow cobblestone alleys, this workshop store is a must-see place in Rome.

Adrian, the architect artisan and the owner is originally from Argentina. A true guardian of the ancient tools for measuring time. The first time I stepped into the “Dust of Time”, my impression of him was of a very pleasant person who was extremely humble towards all his clients and whoever walked in. Then we talked. I explained to him why I am there. God, I discovered a true philosopher. His knowledge and perception of time were so interesting, so mind invigorating, I forgot for what I was there and we dove into a stimulating, long talk about the phenomenon of time and so many other things. I’ll leave the conversation here for you to indulge.

In the meanwhile, check out his online store where you’ll find one of a kind quality, hand-made tools for measuring time – from hourglasses of different sizes to sundials, compasses and many other curious items that would make a wonderful holiday gift or a beautiful décor item for home – www.polvereditempo.it

Enjoy the story of his time stopping store. The story is up on the my Instagram account.

Enjoy xx

Adrian, I found about you and the store “Dust of Time” on Google. I knew that the whole shop was about measuring time. But when I entered the store, the time stopped. It was an interesting feeling. Usually, looking at the time pass gives us anxiety or sense of urgency. But here observing how time passes in a time-measuring object, hourglass, was kind of pleasing, calming. How did you come up with the idea of choosing this path, dedicating yourself to creating these curious objects?

In fact, everything started by a mere chance. By profession I am an architect. I used to work for a big company. Yet I didn’t really like that life, I wasn’t comfortable. My grandfather used to say, it is better to be mouse’s head than lion’s tail. Working with people who were building big villas and houses was not to my liking. I am a very critical person. To cut it short, in that period, when I was about to give a second thought to my profession, a friend of mine gave me a sundial as a gift.

Was it happening in Argentina?

This was happening in Italy. I’ll skip the part of my life in Argentina up until I was 29, when I decided to move to Italy. I have always been good with handwork, a general tendency coming from family. At such a point in my life, a friend of mine gave me a sundial. Until then, I have never had an exposure to the world of measuring time. As many others, I used to observe time either on watch or over wrinkles. With this gift I leaped into the world of measuring time. Gradually, I started to build a sundial, a wall sundial, which is also vulgarly called Le Meridiane. Later, I tried my hand at making clock candles for monks.

Look, we totally ignore how time was measured in ancient times. We do not have that memory. Our memory starts with the mechanical watches. I mean, mechanical watches themselves are very ancient, the first one being invented around 1300s. But it was a curious object not because of its accuracy, but because how it worked. It wasn’t particularly accurate. Sundials were used during the day and nocturnal at night to determine time by the position of the stars. Hourglasses obviously were a complementary instrument in times when there was no sun or it was cloudy. As a matter of fact, hourglass is not a clock. they are chronometers, they are designed to measure passage of time. As a German philosopher Ernst Jung said, the mechanical watches do not measure time, but fabricate time, because they are totally different from what the real time is.  

Time is a philosophical phenomenon, I think. Just think, in times of hardship, difficulty and anxiety, time never passes. On the contrary, in time of happiness and joy, we do not know how time flies away. That means, time it a relative phenomenon, yes, also a scientific measurement, but as well relative. So, slowly, I started to enter this world. Also, I was young, you know, when one is young, one is not conscious of the value of time, but the elderly are, as the end is drawing close. I smoke pipe and in the world of pipe smokers, the measurement of time is the length of one pipe. What I mean is there are endless ways to measure time.

So, when ventured into this work, I started with sundials, then moved on to clock candles for monks to measure time at night. In general, all these tools belonged to aristocracy, or borghese. Farmers planned their day around the sun. I think the first phenomenon that made mankind suspect of time was shadow. Because, mankind realized that from the rise of sun until sunset, with the movement and gradient of the sun, the shadow moves and changes. And this was the first reference point in the birth of objects that measure time. This is how sundial works.

Then came synchronization. If we put the whole process in perspective, it was until when someone has decided to let’s say synchronize time in two separate points, and this is, probably, how portable measurement tools came into picture. Above all, I think, it was necessary also during the wars. In times of attack from different sides, calculating time in terms of the position of shadow wouldn’t do the job. Isn’t is amazing how wars along the history found their way in and changed it all.

Measuring time can never be perfected, right? First everything started on empirical experience, then mathematical calculations followed. These are all the topics that interest me and so I dedicated myself to this craft. I try my hand in making different types of watches and work on improving my skills.

One day, I discovered hourglass, which is not a clock, but is a tool to measure passage of time. Hourglass is an incredible tool. That is the only tool where the time is tangible, one can touch time. The sand in the upper bulb is the future, the neck is present and the sand in the lower bulb is the past. It is a practical tool too. But the first version that was called clepsydra, was made of water. So, it was a water clock. Not in this exact form, different sizes of vessels filled with water were used to measure the passage of time. What we call clessidra (hourglass) now is in fact clepsamia, a sand tool.

Where was the clessidra born?

There is no knowledge on the exact place that it was created. I suspect, it was ancient Greece. But as water clock. The version we create now, the sand clessidra is not very ancient. I assume it was in Babylonia, Persia etc. My researches didn’t result with a specific information on that, I mean the water clock is really, really ancient.

What time the tools that you make date back to?

The tools that I make date back to 1700s, they are portable models that were first made in Nurnberg. I decided to produce portable objects, for obvious reason, because I had to make my living out of this too. This craft was to be my passion and living. It needed to be practical. But no, wait, even before that I made shepherd’s stick, which is also a tool for measuring time according to the position of the sun.

Another topic is that the mechanical hour that we use today is quite disconnected from the solar hour. Sometimes there is a difference of as much as an hour in these two times. This discrepancy is also due to the need to facilitate the issue of time. For example, the countries such as the US or Russia extend across couple of time zones. To facilitate, organize and avoid confusion as much as possible, the lines of zones do not run exactly along the solar times, they are adjusted. But if we check time against the real solar time, we’ll observe discrepancy. When you see a note – real local time – that is astrological time.

Listening to you, someone that is as profound and humble as you are, my thoughts wander. The qualities that are required for this work, namely, a lot of attention, concentration, precision – are the qualities of intense mediation practiced to elevate the spirit.

Totally. The artisan work is a very creative work, it is kind of an artistic work. I always say this: the difference between artist and artisan is that artisan creates an artwork that is also a practical product. Usually, an artwork doesn’t have to have a practical use. Also, there are so many artisanal works that with the passage of time have garnered the value of an artwork. For me, artist is the one who is always in search of ways of expression. Artisanal work with modernization has lost a lot of value. Maybe, it garners the value it deserves with time. For example, a furniture of the 17^th century is considered an artwork and carries a value of an artwork today. In this sense, this is a very complicated topic to elaborate. But in general, I’d say the difference between an artist and an artisan is that the artisan makes a product that has a practical use in that moment in time.

Many times, I wonder a lot about why we do the things that we do. What do you think, if you hadn’t moved from Argentina to Italy, would you have dedicated yourself to this craft?

Nobody knows, nobody can answer to that question. Let’s say you take a thousand white sticks and one red one and drop them from height. Do you think, the red stick will always fall into the same spot? No, it will always fall into a different place. Human life is like that too, there is a possibility for total change in every instant. That’s why, I do not know. In Argentina there is a saying – you’d be what you are meant to be or you’d be nobody. The saying alludes to a pre-determined destiny. But is there a thing called destiny? I do not know. I am a type who doubts everything. There is a beautiful saying – Doubt is the privilege of the secure. The insecure people can’t permit space for doubt.

Then fear fills in that space…

Right. Now, there are people that need political and ideological position. Why? Because, such position gives a sense of certainty. The ones that are afraid of insecurity and can’t afford doubt as it opens space for insecurity, adopt such positions that are supported by ideology or philosophy. I have always been agnostic, come from a family that has been non-religious already for three generations. I’ve raised my kids in this spirit as well – one should submit to insecurity, continuous research of the truth.

But isn’t it difficult to live without firm points?

Absolutely. Of course. The truth is a lie in which one believes. But who is in power to say what is the Truth.

Could this be the reason why you dedicated yourself to a profession that requires so much precision? Your need to search and understand?

I do not know. You know, there is a saying – I know that I do not know, I do not remember which philosopher said this, I don’t have a memory. If I had one, that would have been a strange thing. My point is, the more one learns, the more one understands that doesn’t know a thing – then one adds “maybe”, “might” to everything one says. With such uncertainty, of course, life becomes uncomfortable. Because, being grounded is really comfortable, it brings tranquility. I do not know, I am of doubt and for doubt. I think it is better this way, less comfortable, but better. In fact, this approach of questioning everything has taken me on a path, in respect to time, to doubt and question it too. And it really opens up one’s mind and learn things that wouldn’t have been possible without such attitude.

What your advice would be for the coming generations?

This is a difficult one. For ages, the maximum human speed has been that of a horse. We’ve tried and trained different animals for this, elephants let’s say and the last one has been horse. But then a moment came in history – with the steam engines – the velocity jumped. The increase is not mathematical increase any more, but a geometrical one. It is geometrically exponential. We’ve reached to a point, it feels like, we’ve lost the control over our world, before it was us controlling, now it feels like it’s machines in charge. With the climate urgency and the sort of unimaginable economic crisis that we’re heading, this is a difficult question. But I wouldn’t want the youth to grow up with pessimistic thoughts about the future.  

We started this series of interviews to learn about the excellence of Made in Italy. But we both are kind of strangers. I look with foreign eyes and want to understand what is at the core of this excellence. We do not want to learn from the experience of big industries and businesses, we’d like to learn from people that do the handwork behind, are on top of all and pays attention to all the details along the process.

I think, you’ve picked the right country to learn about the sense of quality and artisan work.