Dream Water Clock: An Adventure Through Time

Tick-Tock Aquakeeper is an interactive water clock created for Yiyu Future Kindergarten. It transforms the abstract concept of time into a dynamic learning environment that children can observe, sense, and continually explore.

The work begins with a mountain as the source of water. Clear water flows through pipes, gears, vessels, and illuminated structures; once the water reaches an hourly threshold, it triggers a sequence of energy transformations—from hydropower and electricity to the launch of a rocket. Through a chain reaction inspired by Rube Goldberg machines, children encounter time through flowing water, changing colors, mechanical rhythms, and responsive light, discovering that time is not a static number, but an ongoing process of change.

As the work is situated in a Montessori kindergarten, its materials, scale, and formal language draw on Montessori education’s emphasis on sensory experience, concrete perception, and gradual exploration. Clear geometric forms, traceable water routes, and orderly mechanical modules allow children to begin with visible and comprehensible phenomena, then gradually connect them to more abstract ideas of time, energy, and cause and effect.

The natural grain and warmth of wood soften the technological distance often associated with mechanical structures, while gently diffused light guides attention toward water routes, energy transitions, and hourly markers. As children walk past, pause, watch, and wait, they repeatedly encounter the interconnected relationships among water volume, rhythm, light, and events. The work translates the Montessori principle of building abstract understanding through concrete experience into a dynamic learning object that can be continuously read. Rather than passively receiving rules about time, children are encouraged to observe independently and gradually recognize the logic connecting energy transformation and unfolding events. Technology becomes an everyday experience that can be approached, observed, and understood.

Tick-Tock Aquakeeper extends the function of a clock into a sensory learning installation woven into children’s daily lives. Here, time becomes visible water, an event worth anticipating, and an adventure that unfolds gradually through observation.

Geometry Playground

Suspended within the double-height atrium, Geometry Playground draws on the geometric language of Montessori learning materials. Squares, circles, and triangles are interwoven into shifting forms that evoke schools of fish, water droplets, and ripples. Seen from below, the installation appears like a lively underwater scene; as children move upward through the building, changing viewpoints reveal new configurations and perspectives.

At the third-floor void, the work transforms again, unfolding into an expansive landscape of mountains and stars. From different angles, children can also discover phases of the moon—its waxing and waning forms emerging within the composition—inviting a sense of wonder akin to looking into a vast universe.

By making use of the atrium’s vertical space and the changing perspectives of everyday movement, this three-dimensional installation encourages children to encounter geometry, spatial perception, and forms found in nature through play and observation. The work opens an imaginative journey of discovery within their daily environment.