Bonsai Gear Clock (Technologies Revisited)

I saw this desktop decoration on Google Reader this afternoon, and it reminded me of The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (a short film I had written about last night and have since discovered the full length version of here, if you're interested...also, you can save the video to your machine using ClipNabber). In addition to being an attractive clock, I found the content of the device sort of intriguing. More and more, it seems, we're incorporating past technologies into modern art (science fiction included, as mentioned in my previous post) and culture - sometimes for their nostalgic value, sometimes as symbols, representative of ideals or memorable aspects of the technologies' contexts (possibly applicable to the bonsai gear clock), and sometimes just because they look cool (definitely applicable to the clock). The original NES is a good example of an old technology that's frequently referenced today. I think it's so popular in part because it's such a rich and imaginative resource to pull from, but also because it's sentimental to so many individuals, and they can use it to identify themselves with a certain subgroup of the gaming community.