Keeping Time is a speculative, artistic project that reimagines our interaction with more than human temporalities. It questions how our attunement to the paces, rhythms and cycles of other beings might affect our perception of climate change and our collective response to it.
The installation centers on three interactive, kinetic sculptures which bring the movement of different natural cycles into our space. This invites audiences to shift focus from the standardized, social and economic paces of human activity to the varied rhythms of other beings.
The first sculpture, Daphne is from the land inspired by the year-long blooming cycles of plant communities. This piece makes tangible the early flowering caused by climate change, disrupting interconnected species like pollinators and animals dependent on timely nectar, fruit, and seeds.
The second sculpture, Philomel is from the skies inspired by the migratory rhythms of birds as they make their seasonal journeys from breeding to wintering grounds. To do this migratory birds relying on complex organization of timings to ensure their arrival coincides with appropriate conditions and food sources at each point. Climate change’s unpredictable impact on seasons forces earlier, shorter, and rerouted migrations.
The third sculpture, Amphitrite draws from the amazing cycles of regeneration that occur in whalefall ecosystems. When a whale dies, its body sinks to the ocean floor becoming life matter for over 200 organisms for decades and sequestering significant carbon into the deep-sea environment at the same time. However, as the global whale population declines so does the frequency of whalefall, disrupting this delicate balance of growth and decay that sustains marine biodiversity.
As participants explore the installation, they will notice that the movement of each sculpture is altered by human presence. Through this experience the artist hopes to make tangible disruption that is occurring along timescales that are difficult to perceive and instead allowing us to directly experience our impact and entanglement with more than human time.
Final Project Fabricademy 2024-2025 | #more than human #temporality #interaction.
