This work is part of the Official Selection - AI Master Awards 2026.

It all started from a moldy beetroot that I found in my fridge.

The Mould Clock is a timekeeping object that replaces mechanical measurement of time with living growth as the timekeeping mechanism.Instead of counting seconds, it allows time to manifest physically through the development of living organisms. While it adopts the familiar form of a clock, it removes all elements associated with accuracy: no hands, no numbers, no ticking mechanism. In their place, a semi-transparent enclosure containing an agar-based medium becomes a living habitat for mold, lychens and mycelia.

The clock’s pace is not fixed: temperature, humidity, air quality, and human presence influence the speed and character of growth. Denser, settled areas mark older times, while active edges indicate the present, linking both in a continuous process. In this way the clock doesn’t measure time in a universal way, but is inextricably linked to its surroundings. Time is irreversible, therefore the clock cannot be reset, and once the surface is fully transformed it is replaced, leaving behind a physical archive of elapsed time.

By presenting time as an animate process, the organic clock challenges the notion of time as precise and controllable, reframing it as material, uneven, and inseparable from its environment.

Check it out here:

https://aimasteraward.com/selections/feeling-mold-yet/

MIRRORS OR PORTALS?