Clockey
Clocky is a brand of alarm clock outfitted with wheels, allowing it to hide itself in order to force the owner awake in an attempt to find it. Invented for an industrial design class by Gauri Nanda, then a graduate student at MIT Media Lab, Clocky won the 2005 Ig Nobel Prize in Economics.[1][2] After earning her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and her master's degree from MIT, Nanda founded a company, Nanda Home, to commercialize Clocky and other home products.
History[edit]
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The original prototype, built in three days, was covered with shag carpet to appear like a pet.[3] After the end of the design class for which she invented Clocky, Nanda did not make any further plans for the device.[4] However, several months after a description was posted on the Media Lab website, pictures of Clocky were picked up on various technology product blogs including Gizmodo, Engadget, and BoingBoing. Within two weeks information about the device became an Internet meme and Nanda, the inventor, had been booked to demonstrate the device on Good Morning America.[3]
Nanda filed for a patent and, with support from her family, left MIT after a master's degree to found Nanda Home and develop the invention for commercial production. The newer version, though not carpeted, is still designed to appear zoomorphic. Production is outsourced to Hong Kong. In October 2012 during a video interview, Gauri mentioned that over 500,000 units had already been sold.[5]
The development of Clocky and marketing of it has become a Harvard Business School case study: Clocky, the Runaway Alarm Clock.[6]
Operation[edit]
Paul Bazely is an English actor, known for portraying the role of Troy in the ITV sitcom Benidorm.His other TV credits include Making Out, Emmerdale, Heartbeat, Doctors, Holby City, Vanity Fair and The IT Crowd.
The device functions as a regular alarm clock, except that it moves on its own power when the snooze button is pressed a second time.[7] A microprocessor ensures that the device will move at a random speed, in a random direction, and around obstacles, using a different route each time. Large wheels on shock absorbers extend beyond the top of the clock to protect it from impact should it roll off a nightstand. By the time the alarm sounds again the device is in a place unknown to the user, who is forced to determine where it is, and possibly walk to that location to press the snooze button again.
Tocky[edit]
Tocky is Nanda Home's second generation moving alarm clock, first advertised in 2010 as the 'tech-savvy cousin' of Clocky. Similar to Clocky, it is a digital alarm clock with changeable skin that runs away on the alarm, but it is spherical (hence, it rolls on its own body rather than on wheels), has a touch screen display with a turnable round frame around it (to set the time and alarm), and receives up to over six hours of audio made by the recording the user's own voice or sounds directly to its microphone, or uploads through USB plugged from computers.[8] Tocky also has a demo mode which enables it to move about and play installed sounds, not in the form of setting off an alarm.
Nanda Home has a similar product, Ticky which has the same features as Tocky but with a digital analog-style face.
References[edit]
- ^Daniela Cako (2005-10-07). 'Ig Nobels Honor Amusing, Yet Educational Research'. the Tech. Retrieved 2007-11-21.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
- ^James Lee (2007-08-28). 'Gear Gallery: Versatile HD DVR, Custom Coffee Pods and Lots More'. Wired. Retrieved 2007-11-21.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
- ^ abRobert Weisman (2005-04-07). 'Rise and shine -- and find that clock:Rolling alarm gets snoozers up and into a hunt to hit the off switch'. Boston Globe. Retrieved 2007-11-21.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
- ^Max Chafkin (July 2007). 'Start-up Case Study #1: The Reluctant Entrepreneur - Nanda Home - Gauri Nanda'. Inc. Magazine. Retrieved 2008-02-17.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
- ^'Gauri Nanda, Nanda Home: In the business of running alarm clocks'Archived 2012-11-24 at the Wayback Machine, Town of TechnologyArchived 2017-12-11 at the Wayback Machine, 18 October 2012. Retrieved on 28 November 2012.
- ^'HBS Cases: Clocky, the Runaway Alarm Clock - HBS Working Knowledge - Harvard Business School'. Hbswk.hbs.edu. 2011-12-12. Retrieved 2016-09-15.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
- ^Dave Philipps (2007-10-30). 'Heavy sleepers: Wake up with robot chase'. Colorado Springs Gazette. Archived from the original on 2007-11-03. Retrieved 2007-11-21.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
- ^Tocky InstructionsArchived 2010-11-26 at the Wayback Machine
External links[edit]
- nandahome.com - official site
Born | Arthur Charles Farrington October 12, 1921 |
---|---|
Died | January 8, 2010 (aged 88) Los Osos, California, U.S. |
Alma mater | Pomona College Miami University University of Southern California |
Occupation | |
Years active | 1953–1995 |
Known for | Creator of Gumby and Davey and Goliath |
Spouse(s) | (m. 1948; div. 1966) (m. 1976; died 1998) |
Children | 2 |
Family | Joseph W. Clokey (father) |
Awards | Inkpot Award (2006)[1] |
Arthur 'Art' Clokey (born Arthur Charles Farrington; October 12, 1921 – January 8, 2010) was an American pioneer in the popularization of stop-motionclay animation, best known as the creator of the character Gumby and the original voice of Gumby's sidekick, Pokey. Clokey's career began in 1953 with a film experiment called Gumbasia, which was influenced by his professor, Slavko Vorkapich, at the University of Southern California.[2][3][4][5] Clokey and his wife Ruth subsequently came up with the clay character Gumby and his horse Pokey, who first appeared in the Howdy Doody Show and later got their own series The Adventures of Gumby, from which they became a familiar presence on American television. The characters enjoyed a renewal of interest in the 1980s when American actor and comedian Eddie Murphy parodied Gumby in a skit on Saturday Night Live.
Clokey's second most famous production is the duo of Davey and Goliath, funded by the Lutheran Church in America (now the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).[6]
Clokey founded the company Premavision (which has manufacturing subsidiary, Prema Toy Company) around his Gumby and Pokey franchise.
Clocky Rolling Alarm Clock
Early life[edit]
Clokey
At Webb School in Claremont, young Clokey came under the influence of teacher Ray Alf, who took students on expeditions digging for fossils and learning about the world around them. Clokey later studied geology at Pomona College, where his father Joseph was an organist, before leaving in 1943 to join the military during World War II.[7][8] He graduated from his father's alma mater, Miami University, in 1948.[citation needed]
Clay animation[edit]
Art Clokey also made a few highly experimental and visually inventive short clay animation films for adults, including his first student film Gumbasia (produced in 1953 and released in 1955), the visually rich Mandala (1977)—described by Clokey as a metaphor for evolving human consciousness—and the equally bizarre The Clay Peacock (1959), an elaboration on the animated NBC logo of the time.[9][10] Consisting of animated clay shapes contorting to a jazz score, Gumbasia so intrigued Samuel G. Engel, then president of the Motion Pictures Producers Association, that he financed the pilot film for what became Clokey's The Gumby Show (1957). The title Gumbasia was in homage to Walt Disney's Fantasia.
In 1987, Clokey provided the voice for the figure Pokey in Arnold Leibovit's film The Puppetoon Movie, and has been voicing him since.
The Clokeys are credited with the clay-animation title sequences for the 1965 beach movies Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. His son, Joe Clokey, continued the Davey and Goliath cartoon in 2004. In March 2007, KQED-TV broadcast the hour-long documentary Gumby Dharma as part of their Truly CA series.[11]
In 1995, Clokey and Dallas McKennon teamed up again for Gumby: The Movie, a feature film. The movie was not a success at the box office and was widely panned by critics, although it saw modest success on home media, going on to sell more than a million copies on home media, cementing itself as a cult classic. It was released in its original 90-minute theatrical version on Blu-ray in 2017.
In the mid-1990s, Nickelodeon, Fox, and Cartoon Network signed a contract with Art Clokey to air every episode of Gumby for its anchor spots at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. It was on top of their ratings for over three years.
Death and legacy[edit]
Clokey died in his sleep on January 8, 2010, at age 88, at his home in Los Osos, California, after suffering from a recurrent bladder infection.[12][13][14]
On October 13, 2011, a day after on what would have been Clokey's 90th birthday, Google paid homage to his life and works with an interactive logo doodle in the style of his clay animations, including Gumby, produced by Premavision Studios.[15]
Filmography[edit]
- Gumbasia (produced in 1953 and released in 1955) (animator, director, producer and writer)
- The Gumby Show (1957–1968) as Pokey (voice; also animator, director, producer and writer)
- Davey and Goliath (1961–1964, 1971–1975) (director, producer and writer)
- Mandala (1977) (director, producer and camera operator)
- The Puppetoon Movie (1987) as Pokey (voice)
- Gumby Adventures (1988) as Worm and Pokey (voice; also director, producer and head writer)
- Gumby: The Movie (1995) as Pokey (voice; also director, producer, script writer and animator)
References[edit]
- ^Inkpot Award
- ^Tim Lawson; Alisa Persons, eds. (2004). The magic behind the voices. University Press of Mississippi. p. 120. ISBN978-1-57806-696-4.
- ^TV personalities: biographical sketch book: Volume 3. St. Louis, Mo. : TV Personalities. 1957. OCLC2470684.
- ^'Hero Complex'. Los Angeles Times.
- ^'Art Clokey dies at 88; creator of Gumby'. Los Angeles Times. January 9, 2010.
- ^'Who Are Davey and Goliath?'. Daveyandgoliath.org. Retrieved 2011-10-11.
- ^Felch, Jason (9 January 2010). 'Art Clokey dies at 88; creator of Gumby'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
- ^Gilbertsen, Christian (12 February 2010). 'Arthur Clokey Dies: Pomona alumnus and creator of Gumby dies at 88'. The Student Life. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
- ^These films have recently become available for purchase by the public and are included in the Rhino box-set release of Gumby's television shorts.
- ^'Art Clokey's Clay Peacock'. www.gumbyworld.com.
- ^http://www.kqed.org/arts/truly/episode.jsp?eid=160077
- ^Felch, Jason (January 9, 2010). 'Art Clokey dies at 88; creator of Gumby'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 20, 2012.
- ^Fox, Margalit (January 11, 2010). 'Art Clokey, Animator Who Created Gumby, Dies at 88'. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 14 January 2010. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
- ^Pemberton, Patrick S. 'Gumby' creator and Los Osos resident Art Clokey dies'Archived January 10, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, SanLuisObispo.com/The Tribune, January 8, 2010
- ^Art Clokey: How Gumby got his name, The Christian Science Monitor, retrieved 2010-10-12.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Art Clokey. |
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Art Clokey |
- Art Clokey Art Clokey's bio on Gumbyworld.com
- Art Clokey at Find a Grave
- Art Clokey at IMDb
- Art Clokey at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television