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100 Sentences

Neil Houghton

Chronference: 0201409230442+(unresolved)

Poetry and Charm

1. The ‘Thin Red Line’ and ‘Garlands of Time’.

2. Two metaphors to illustrate two traditions of temporality.

3. Our meanings are expressions of our unique temporal signatures, and our performances are expressions of our temporal repertoires.

4. In their Conversations on Science, Culture and Time, Serres and Latour refer to a “dazzling shortcut between poetic and scientific temporality”.

5. This is a reference to two traditions of temporality.

6. One the one hand a tradition of the time of your life.

7. And on the other a tradition of the time of the universe.

8. On the one hand the poetry of the map. On the other, the charm of the territory.

9. They meet as garlands of time.

10. As Bruno Latour wrote, referring to Michael Serres description of a hammer:

11. “When I grab the handle [of the hammer, itself containing many folded temporalities], I insert my gesture in a ‘garland of time’ ... [I] insert myself in a variety of temporalities or time differentials ... ”

12. The object ‘folds time’ and the object and I engage in an unfolding ontological drama.

Unresolved Drama

13. Attempts at resolution of the drama typically proceed in two ways. Neither completely satisfactory.

14. Let’s label them as the undermining and overmining traditions.

15. Undermining involves the reduction of time to one or more of its temporal modalities.

16. It breaks time into pieces, some of which are said to be real and others illusory.

17. The overmining approach dissolves time upwards into the eternal or simply to a relation between things.

18. Undermining approaches generally have two components.

19. A structure and an experience.

20. We can see the drama unfold in the distinctions between phenomenology and post‐structuralism.

21. For example, Husserl’s phenomenological model of time consciousness wraps a “retentional and protentional halo” around every perception.

22. Deleuze’s three syntheses of time involve passive and active syntheses.

23. Passive syntheses are structures beneath the threshold of consciousness, while the active syntheses are experiences within the mind.

24. The same for Heidegger’s three ecstaces of time.

25. Bergson’s notion of duration emphasises the multiplicity of conscious states “made up of moments inside one another”

26. Merleau-Ponty reduces time to one single time that he calls a field of presence.

27. In presentism, time is reduced to only the present.

28. In growing block models the present sits at the leading edge of an ever‐ increasing past.

29. But where is the future?

30. And there are more.

31. Morton’s hyperobject is an unresolved pervasive object massively distributed in time. Climate change is an exemplar hyperobject.

32. Garcia’s approach is a middle ground approach that considers time as an intensity.

33. The present is that which has maximal presence, while the future has maximal absence.

34. Within this temporal gradience, every past event is a composition (or texture) of presence and absence sitting somewhere between maximal presence (the pure present) and maximal absence (the pure future).

35. It resists undermining and is not exhausted by the temporal modalities of the mind.

36. It resists overmining and is not eliminated by dissolution to eternity, or an abstract ‘t’ within the equations of physics.

37. So today listen for the gestures, structures and experiences, as well as the signatures and the repertoires.

38. Consider how temporalities infuse into chronopathologies or chronopolitics.

Beyond the Denizen

39. Listen for the temporalities of denizen futures characterised by patterns of repetition.

40. This genre of futures typically focuses on similarity and resemblance.

41. It emphasises familiarization and officially sanctioned futures.

42. The genre of denizen futures involves a ‘Thin Red Line’ perspective.

43. A thin red line is a trace (or echo) of the past.

44. It is also a line that connects the dots as futures become real as time unfolds.

45. Thin red lines establish time binds.

46. They are like Zerubavel’s ‘hidden rhythms’

48. They are like Orlikowski and Yates’ ‘temporal structuring’ that ‘shape the temporal rhythyms and the form of ongoing practices’ within an organization.

49. In contrast a temporality of difference unhinges time.

50. Like Shakespeare who had Hamlet declare “The time is out of joint”. Unhinged and unresolved.

51. Just as the core of queer theory is a critique of hetero‐normativity, the core of speculative, alien and deviant futures is a critique of chrono‐ normativity.

52. Chrono‐normativity is an expression of dominant temporal panoramas and their signatures and repertoires.

53. A response to re‐claim the future from attempts to deal it a death‐blow.

54. We see this for example, with Franco Berardi in 2011 in his Manifesto of Post‐Futurism.

55. In the final sentence of the book, we writes “We will sing to the infinity of the present and abandon the illusion of a future”

56. Well then, it seems we need alternative chronotopes.

57. We can see some of these in the theoretical frameworks of alien futures, speculative futures and deviant futures.

58. New chronotopes and their temporal repertoires that enable us to release our time binds and unhinge time.

59. Alien inquiry, speculative inquiry and queer inquiry, all of which involve “a desire for another way of being in both the world and time”.

60. They embrace repertoires of defamiliarization.

61. Just as the temporal turn in queer theory brings a critical attitude to challenge the status of binaries.

62. In a temporal sense, this same attitude seeks to defamiliarize dominant temporalities. To make (more) familiar the unfamiliar.

Time as a Zeno Object

63. Time sits within the liminal space between the poetry of the map and the charm of the territory,

64. Our temporal thoughts and experiences arise as a blend of the poetry of the map and the charm of the territory.

65. The poetry of inner games involves the times of our life, and the charm of outer games involves the time of the universe.

66. Hiding and hard to grasp.

67. Yet its poetic‐charm is alluring.

68. Time is illusory.

69. Time is elusive.

70. Time is alluring.

71. Time is a zeno object.

72. If you want to see a zeno object look at the chronference logo!

73. Temporal objects are dopplegangers.

74. One moment seems to resemble another.

75. There is a strange verisimilitude.

76. A series of nows appear.

77. Yet each now is a paradoxical moment in a temporal sorites sequence.

78. It seems as if time errupts.

79. Garlands of time are temporal panoramas.

80. Similar to Lewis’ theory of possible worlds.

81. Some real, some possible, some plausible, some necessary, some contingent, some actual, some the ways things could have been, some the way things may actually be, some denizen, some speculative, some alien, some deviant.

Temporal Panorama

82. The literature on time and temporality is vast and it spans the fields of physics, anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy,  phenomenology, consciousness and cosmology, to name just a few.

83. Deleuze uses the phrase “temporal panorama” to describe a collection of complex time‐images and I think this is a nice metaphor for the different textures of time in these disciplines.

84. These textures are combinations and configurations of temporal signatures and temporal repertoires.

85. Victoria Koehler‐Jones described temporal signature as a person’s “unique temporal identity”.

86. Churchland, for example, refers to prototypes as neurological patterns or signatures that can be activated in specific contexts. They act as windows to time.

87. Koehler‐Jones’ model of temporal signature includes three primary dimensions ‐ temporal progression, temporal patterns and temporal perspective.

88. Progression includes tempo and rhythm. These reflect the experience of the flow of time. Rhythm is the pattern of tempo change.

89. Pattern includes structure and orientation. Structure refers to the shape or typology of time. Orientation is the relative importance of the temporal modes (past, present and future) within these typologies.

90. Perspective includes depth and texture. Depth refers to an individual’s temporal horizon, and texture reflects the intensity, richness and coherence.

91. Temporal repertoires are shaped by temporal signatures. They enable different modes of practice.

Repertoires and Awe

92. So what?

93. How do we manage the inherent uncertainty of the future?

94. Our temporal repertoires influence our practice.

95. Time and temporality are fundamental shapers of our sense of reality and how we understand different categories of the future.

96. Understanding temporality will inform how change occurs in individuals, and how such change infuses into organizations and into professional practice.

97. This is important to enhance our collective capability to address complex, wicked and feral problems.

98. So as you listen to the talks and engage in converations notice the topographies of thoughts, and temporal panoramas they entail.

99. Be curious about how time unhinges.

100. Enter the unresolved world of surprise, wonder and awe.



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