Issue 55.1

Overview

Special Issue: Relative Time/Little Time I

Published: March 2022


View the issue introduction or see the issue summary and contents below.

 12 essays, totalling 176 pages

 $24.95 CAD


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Issue Summary

This is the first of two special issues featuring the proceedings of the online conference Relative Time/Little Time, developed in collaboration with the Dutch artist duo Bik Van der Pol.

Contents

The Untimely Impersonal

Erin Manning

The untimely impersonal moves at the pace of neurodiverse time. Neurodiverse time is time out of time, time devoid of executive function, time not only nonlinear but fundamentally ungraspable as a line or a block. Incalculable to its core, without a timeline, neurodiverse time is terrifying in its infradimensionality, exuberant in its yield. In this essay, my proposition is to take us on a journey through the constraints and conditions of the untimely impersonal to ask how else the living (and learning) happens when time moves out of the metric of the executive.

A Q&A with Erin Manning

Erin Manning

The following exchange took place during the Question and Answer period following Erin Manning’s (EM) talk, “The Untimely Impersonal.” The talk was given digitally on 22 September 2021 as part of Relative Time/Little Time, a speaker series designed collaboratively by Dutch artist duo Bik Van der Pol and Mosaic. The Question and Answer session was moderated by Mosaic Editor Shepherd Steiner (SS).

Sleep Through This Article: On Imagining Sleep in Canada

Paul Huebener

I argue that representations of sleep in Canada can illuminate and challenge how sleep operates as a contested cultural figure. Focusing on advertisements from Sleep Country Canada and other examples, I show how we can develop a critical literacy of sleep in a restless world.

A Q&A with Paul Huebener

Paul Huebener

The following exchange took place during the Question and Answer period following Paul Huebener’s (PH) talk, “Sleep Through This Talk: Imagination and the Paradox of Sleep in a Restless World.” The talk was given digitally on 26 January 2022 as part of Relative Time/Little Time, a speaker series designed collaboratively by Dutch artist duo Bik Van der Pol (LB and JVdP) and Mosaic. The Question and Answer session was moderated by Mosaic Editor Shepherd Steiner (SS).

Collectivize Time, Redistribute the Future

Jonas Staal

Our present moment is shaped by violent forces of global precarization, rising authoritarianism, and ecosystem collapse. In that context, we face a chronopolitical struggle: a struggle over the politics of time. What is the role of art and cultural work in expanding time, solidarizing different time scales: to collectivize time, and to redis­tribute the future?

A Q&A with Jonas Staal

Jonas Staal

The following exchange took place during the Question and Answer period following Jonas Staal’s (JS) talk, “Collectivize Time, Redistribute the Future.” The talk was given digitally on 8 October 2021 as part of Relative Time/Little Time, a speaker series designed collaboratively by Dutch artist duo Bik Van der Pol (LB and JVdP) and Mosaic. The Question and Answer session was moderated by Mosaic Editor Shepherd Steiner (SS).

Negative Accumulation, or That Which Happens without Time

Denise Ferreira da Silva

The following is a transcription of Denise Ferreira da Silva’s talk “Negative Accumulation.” The talk was given digitally on 25 January 2022 as part of Relative Time/Little Time, a speaker series designed collaboratively by Dutch artist duo Bik Van der Pol and Mosaic.

A Q&A with Denise Ferreira da Silva

Denise Ferreira da Silva

The following exchange took place during the Question and Answer period following Denise Ferreira da Silva’s (DFdS) talk, “Negative Accumulation, or That Which Happens without Time.” The talk was given digitally on 25 January 2022 as part of Relative Time/Little Time, a speaker series designed collaboratively by Dutch artist duo Bik Van der Pol and Mosaic. The Question and Answer session was moderated by Mosaic Editor Shepherd Steiner (SS).

How Long Has This Been Going On: Natural History, Political Economy, and the Times of the Anthropocene

Anna-Sophie Springer and Etienne Turpin

In this lecture, we consider the function of temporal “what if?” frameworks to explain why so many questions related to human impact on the environment remain stuck within a Christian-derived fantasy of the “fatal bifurcation.” As an alternative to the logical fallacy of some original (technical) sin, we propose that a multi-dimensional, multi-scalar approach to the various times of crisis that enables forms of humility replace those of humiliation within the discourse of the Anthropocene; to do so, we draw on the international exhibition-led inquiry Reassembling the Natural, which we co-curated from 2013-23, and consider lessons gained from our interventions in natural history museums.

A Q&A with Anna-Sophie Springer and Etienne Turpin

Anna-Sophie Springer and Etienne Turpin

The following exchange took place during the Question and Answer period following Anna-Sophie Springer (AS) and Etienne Turpin’s (ET) talk, “How Long Has This Been Going On: Natural History, Political Economy, and the Times of the Anthropocene.” The talk was given digitally on 3 March 2022 as part of Relative Time/Little Time, a speaker series designed collaboratively by Dutch artist duo Bik Van der Pol (LB and JVdP) and Mosaic. The Question and Answer session was moderated by Mosaic Editor Shepherd Steiner (SS).

Climate Change as Oppressor: Our Growing Ecological Imperative

Steven Duval and Marina McDougall

In this presentation and conversation melding philosophy, cultural history, and contemporary practice, artist/curator Steven Duval and curator Marina McDougall engage Felix Guattari’s The Three Ecologies as a framework to assert the essential value of the arts in contemporary public works projects, or potential future Green New Deal.

A Q&A with Steven Duval and Marina McDougall

Steven Duval and Marina McDougall

The following exchange took place during the Question and Answer period following Steven Duval (SD) and Marina McDougall’s (MM) talk, “Art’s Ecosophical Imperative.” The talk was given digitally on 7 February 2022 as part of Relative Time/Little Time, a speaker series designed collaboratively by Dutch artist duo Bik Van der Pol and Mosaic. The Question and Answer session was moderated by Mosaic Editor Shepherd Steiner (SS).