Humans Since 1982 Contemporary Art

Stockholm, Sweden-based design studio Humans Since 1982 hijacks the original intent of trivial objects, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. Their larger projects and decor — with the latter being essentially kinetic art sculptures — see the collective experimenting with clocks, lighting, looped video, code and more in order to create wholly captivating exhibitions and works of art. 

The brainchild of German-born Bastian Bischoff, Swedish-born Per Emanuelsson and Australian engineer David Cox, Humans Since 1982 was founded in 2009 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Bischoff and Emanuelsson met while studying art, engineering and graphic design at the University of Gothenburg. They found they shared an interest in technology and how humans interact with it in the modern world. One of the group’s first projects was The Clock Clock, an effort to subvert clocks so that a collection of them are paired together as a single art object, with the devices' hands spinning dutifully to display dazzling abstract patterns. The firm’s equally mesmerizing A Million Times series also subverts the traditional functions of timepieces, as hands of multiple analogue clocks programmatically spin individually to yield similarly provocative abstract visuals. 

In 2014, the Changi Airport Group in Singapore contracted Humans Since 1982 to design a large timepiece. The result was the creation of a massive kinetic sculpture. Comprising more than 500 wall clocks, A Million Times at Changi is the world’s largest clock installation and is a breathtaking work of art. It’s also a functioning clock.

On 1stDibs, find Humans Since 1982 decorative objects, wall decorations and more.