Time. If no one asks us, we know what it is. Or at least we know what one of the different versions of it is. Deep ecological time, evolutionary time, time travel, longitude, time expansion and contraction, alternative timelines and parallel universes. Polyphasic sleep, anti-ageing creams, fertility clocks, black holes and artificial intelligence. The groups of neurons forming population clocks within our brains, the nanosecond of difference between the space-time of our feet and heads, the monitoring of every second through our devices. Dinosaurs. And crying.

Timothy Morton and Jennifer Walshe join forces to explore the multiplicity of temporalities at the heart of being human. Everyone in the room is important – the fast-paced digital time of M. C. Schmidt and Walshe, the deep geological rhythms of Lee Patterson, the liminal eternal drones of Aine O’Dwyer, the shifting tectonic plates of Streifenjunko and Vilde&Inga, the audience, whose entropy demonstrates that time is indeed passing. The audience is monitored by heat-sensitive cameras throughout the show. The duration of the performance is between 70 and 90 minutes, dependent on the level of entropy present in the room.

Music: Jennifer Walshe, developed in collaboration with Áine O’Dwyer, Lee Patterson, M. C. Schmidt, Streifenjunko (Eivind Lønning & Espen Reinertsen), Vilde&Inga (Inga Aas & Vilde Alnæs)
Text: Timothy Morton, Jennifer Walshe
Direction and video: Jennifer Walshe
Stage and lighting: Aedín Cosgrove
Sound design: Úna Monaghan

Jennifer Walshe: voice, electronics
Áine O’Dwyer: voice, harp, electronics
Lee Patterson: electronics
M. C. Schmidt: voice, electronics
Eivind Lønning: trumpet
Espen Reinertsen: saxophone
Inga Aas: double bass
Vilde Alnæs: violin

TIME TIME TIME has been commissioned by Borealis – en festival for eksperimentell musikk, Sonic Acts, MaerzMusik – Festival for Time Issues, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, and London Contemporary Music Festival /​Serpentine Galleries. The commission was supported by Arts Council Norway, Arts Council of Ireland and the Performing Arts Fund NL. Funded by the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung. Commissioned as part of Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

Photo Pieter Kers