See you many times!: Difference between revisions
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This trimester will be dedicated to researching the entanglement that binds together digital technologies with ''time'', an inquiry that opens up as many philosophical questions as much as it offers material and practical examples. | This trimester will be dedicated to researching the entanglement that binds together digital technologies with ''time'', an inquiry that opens up as many philosophical questions as much as it offers material and practical examples. | ||
Everyday digital and electronic devices are fundamentally bound to a time-sensitive and time-critical mode of existence: they are controlled by many temporal rhythms precisely regulated and counted: the gigahertz of the cycles of processors in computers and smartphones, the milliseconds that a data packet takes to bring its message to its destination, the refresh rate of a screen tuned to | Everyday digital and electronic devices are fundamentally bound to a time-sensitive and time-critical mode of existence: they are controlled by many temporal rhythms precisely regulated and counted: the gigahertz of the cycles of processors in computers and smartphones, the milliseconds that a data packet takes to bring its message to its destination, the refresh rate of a screen tuned to adapt to human visual perception... | ||
This tight relation is in fact working in both directions: as much as computation and processes are regulated by time intervals, since already many decades precise time keeping has been fully delegated to computers. This circular relation, though, needs physical matter to be guaranteed: electrons and bits do not keep time in themselves, and need a physical materialization. | This tight relation is in fact working in both directions: as much as computation and processes are regulated by time intervals, since already many decades precise time keeping has been fully delegated to computers. This circular relation, though, needs physical matter to be guaranteed: electrons and bits do not keep time in themselves, and need a physical materialization. | ||
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===WEEK 3: visit to telecom museum=== | ===WEEK 3: visit to telecom museum=== | ||
====Tuesday 22 April==== | ====Tuesday 22 April==== | ||
'''10-17:''' The morning will be dedicated to re-tracing the history of communication and time regulation in one of its location in Rotterdam. We will visit the [https://www.houwelingtelecommuseum.nl/ Houweling Telecommuseum] situated in the old telephone central in Rotterdam Noord. In this location where a century ago time was officially regulated for the whole city, we will encounter early examples of networks latency and communication rhythms, find out how information started | '''10-17:''' The morning will be dedicated to re-tracing the history of communication and time regulation in one of its location in Rotterdam. We will visit the [https://www.houwelingtelecommuseum.nl/ Houweling Telecommuseum] situated in the old telephone central in Rotterdam Noord. In this location where a century ago time was officially regulated for the whole city, we will encounter early examples of networks latency and communication rhythms, find out how information started traveling at the speed of light and how machines used to keep time. | ||
=== May Vacation === | === May Vacation === | ||
Revision as of 22:52, 6 April 2025
The clock, not the steam-engine, is the key-machine of the modern industrial age. For every phase of its development the clock is both the outstanding fact and the typical symbol of the machine: even today no other machine is so ubiquitous.
Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization, 1934
One evening, my uncle and I sat in our courtyard in Jendouba in northwestern Tunisia, talking about our homeland. In Tunisia, “we got our independence in 1956,” I said. He abruptly shot me a stern look, almost as if by reflex, before retorting, “1956… that’s a French date!”
Meryem-Bahia Arfaoui., Time and the Colonial State, 2021
This trimester will be dedicated to researching the entanglement that binds together digital technologies with time, an inquiry that opens up as many philosophical questions as much as it offers material and practical examples.
Everyday digital and electronic devices are fundamentally bound to a time-sensitive and time-critical mode of existence: they are controlled by many temporal rhythms precisely regulated and counted: the gigahertz of the cycles of processors in computers and smartphones, the milliseconds that a data packet takes to bring its message to its destination, the refresh rate of a screen tuned to adapt to human visual perception...
This tight relation is in fact working in both directions: as much as computation and processes are regulated by time intervals, since already many decades precise time keeping has been fully delegated to computers. This circular relation, though, needs physical matter to be guaranteed: electrons and bits do not keep time in themselves, and need a physical materialization.
From the atomic clocks, the hyper-precise devices that measure the passing of time by observing the alteration of matter at the nuclear level, to the quartz crystals that are necessary for precise time measurement and time functioning in any electronic circuit or computer, matter is always entangled in this recursive relation between electronic functioning and time regulation.
While these sound like very scientific and technical matters, at the same time the question of time management is a very social and political one, that contributes to define the industrial and post-industrial societies and economies we live and work in. Regulating the societal relation to time is an operation charged with governmental aspects, so we won't shy away to understand how and when it happens.
People
This Issue is guest edited by Martino Morandi and Imane B. K. with contributions by AV-net and Ioana Vreme Moser.
Resources
We have quite a collection of materials related to the topics of this class, books, movies, podcasts.. As we won't have time to dig into everything, we will collect materials here on the wiki as a common resource to possibly dig further.
Schedule
WEEK 1: time as material - time as rhythm - time as control system - time as perception
Monday 7 April
10-17: Special Issue
WEEK 2: What happens when we refuse linear time as we know it?
Monday 14 April
10-17: We take a look at the politics of time, crip time and timezone protocols
WEEK 3: visit to telecom museum
Tuesday 22 April
10-17: The morning will be dedicated to re-tracing the history of communication and time regulation in one of its location in Rotterdam. We will visit the Houweling Telecommuseum situated in the old telephone central in Rotterdam Noord. In this location where a century ago time was officially regulated for the whole city, we will encounter early examples of networks latency and communication rhythms, find out how information started traveling at the speed of light and how machines used to keep time.
May Vacation
☼ There won't be class on Monday 28th of April and Monday 5th of May ☼
WEEK 4
Monday 12 May
10-17:
What does it mean for a device too "run out of time"?
coming sessions we take apart e-waste, examining the material traces of obsolescence, extraction, and repair
WEEK 5
Monday 19
10-17: Special Issue with Special Guest AV-net.
WEEK 6
Monday 26 May
10-17: Special Issue with Special Guest Ioana Vreme Moser.
WEEK 7
Monday 3 June
10-17: Special Issue with visit to the A&M Metal and Electronics Recycling facility in the port of Rotterdam!
JUNE VACATION
☼ There won't be class on Monday 10th of June ☼
WEEK 8
Monday 16 June
10-17: Special Issue
WEEK 9
Monday 23 June
10-17: Special Issue
WEEK 10
Monday 30 June
10-17: Special Issue