Multi-media installation, 7 hours
The tempo of contemporary life. Instantaneous digital displays. Algorithmic culture. Atomic oscillations. Planetary dynamics. Ice melt. Fractured rhythms. Timekeeping is a contested terrain. Precision and unpredictability enter into collision. Since 1972, the leap second, and additional 0.9 seconds periodically inserted into atomic time, has been the hinge between two irreconcilable temporal regimes. Atomic time (UTC) operates through caesium oscillations. Planetary time (UT1) follows Earth’s irregular rotation.
Tidal forces. Ice melt. Atmospheric Dynamics. Core mass redistribution. all influence earth’s spin and temporality. The leap second materialises temporal tension. Within this interstice in time, technological precision surrenders to irregularity. This temporal adjustment is my operative lense. I traversed and negotiated the diverse scales embedded within my research: micro to macro and vice versa. I entered the office at the Paris observatory, within the international Earth Rotation and Reference System Service. One human and one keyboard command releases Bulletin C. The document announcing leap second insertions to global timekeeping systems.
One person, one keystroke, infinite ripples across synchronised networks. From ice sheets to glaciers to atomic clocks, time splits. Duncan Agnew. Geophysicist. A paper is published: planetary ice melt is so significant that it is slowing down earth spin. time perception affected. Polar ice melt redistributes mass toward the equator. Rotations slows. As a figure skater extending her arms.