The idea to use time as a weekly theme came to me quite naturally when visiting Musee d’Orsay last weekend as I was photographing one of the giant old station clocks still in the building.
The beautiful big clocks on Musee d’Orsay helped people catch their trains when it was still le Gare d’Orsay, a train station. Now, they are obsolete historical objects, mementos of a different era, and great to pose with for selfies.
Most of our clocks are now digital. They’re in a rectangular device that pretty much rules our time and our lives - the smartphone.
And whereas the focus of the Orsay clock is to help you be ‘on time’, the focus of timekeeping in this age seems to be to help you ‘make the most of time’. To ‘get things done’. To be productive.
We are still mortal, but in addition to staying alive (which has become a lot easier for most people) we have to live our lives to the fullest.
Carpe diem has morphed from a memento mori into an immense pressure to have the time of your life ALL THE TIME. And to share it on social media to boot.
When I started thinking about how I experience time in my life, I realised it is almost always in a very negative fashion.
When there is a deadline approaching (the word says it all really).
When I have to wait for something.
When I’m procrastinating - and then feel guilty about all the time I’ve seemingly wasted.
As if the idea that we’re all going to die isn’t bad enough, we have now added another imperative to life: we must live it to the fullest. The clock these days not only measuring time - it is judging us.
Of course this isn’t a completely new idea - 17th century vanitas paintings reminded us of death and the transience of life. But this was a moral imperative to not overindulge in worldly pleasures. Quite the opposite of ‘living life to the fullest’.
And the irony is that we have more time than ever before. We live longer, healthier lives. Machines have taken over most of our daily tasks. And yet, time is slipping out of our hands.
Time is positively experienced - at least by me - when it’s invisible. ‘I lost track of time’.
When I’m in the studio, completely immersed in work.
When I’m doing something I love.
The best way to ‘kill’ time then, paradoxically, is to let go of the idea of being productive, of measuring output, effectiveness, success, reach - and to spend time doing what makes you happy.
Or, alternatively, to create art. To make something that will outlast your period on earth.
Italian artist Alighieri Boetti (or, as he later called himself, ‘Alighieri e Boetti’) had a lifelong fascination with time.
Alighiero Boetti, Counter, Collage on silk screen ,1967
Take a look at his counter for example. It’s a silk screen collage depicting a counter with seven digits moving from 5999999 to 6000000. I think it’s something we can all recognise being drawn into - that magical moment when a counter moves to the next stage and the last nines turn into zeros. We are watching time in action.
What he’s done here is quite beautiful: he’s frozen not only time moving, but also the registration of it, and made it time-less in turning it into art.
Schiphol Clock, Maarten Baas, Schiphol, Lounge 2
And Dutch designer Maarten Baas has taken this to a whole new level in his ‘Real Time’ series of clocks, where you see a man painting the hands of the clock in real time. Really. These are 12-hour video loops which must have been quite an effort to produce.
If you’re ever at Schiphol Airport do take the time to admire his Schiphol clock - a giant sized suspended clock which perpetuates the illusion of a man painting time live by including a little staircase and door at the back.
Maarten Baas, Analog Digital, iPhone App
Can’t make it to Schiphol? Then you might like his iPhone app Analog Digital, there the digits are painted and repainted as time progresses. It’s very addictive to watch - a great way to spend, or waste some time.
Of course the whole idea of being able to ‘waste’ time hinges upon the presupposition that you could be doing something better with it. And this takes us back to Boetti. His ‘year lamp’, dating back to 1966, is the ultimate FOMO artwork avant la lettre. It’s supposed to switch on for exactly 11 seconds a year, so chances are no one will ever witness this moment.
I think what we tend to forget when it comes to time, and our idea of time management, and being productive, is its elasticity.
Time is not absolute - or at least not absolutely experienced.
When we are fully in the present, there is no time.
When we are in the dentist’s chair, seconds turn into hours.
When we are having the time of our life, it flies.
Even though we can measure it with atomic exactitude there are infinite ways to experience time.
And this, I think, is captured supremely well in Salvador Dali’s ‘Persistence of Memory’ with the melting watches.
Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali
Here, time and timekeeping have no power: it’s the experience of time, whether awake or dreaming, that matters.
Today, what I’m going to look for in both life and work, is to notice where the pressure to be effective, efficient, productive and the like actually make me feel like there is hardly any time at all.
The time we have is limited - why spend it beating ourselves up because we’re not living up to some ideal of productivity and success we’ve unwittingly subscribed to?
Especially when creating new work it can be extremely tempting to go fast. Too fast. To finish it. To be able to press ‘publish’. To share.
So today, why not take it slow. Think about time in your life. And about how you could capture it. But don’t feel pressured to create and share on the spot.
Take your time - you’re the one in charge.
