Scallar Oscillation, 2018

DIANN BAUER (US UK)

Two-channel HD video with quadraphonic sound (6:40 mins)

Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, published in 1915, proposed that time does not pass identically for everyone. An example of this would be the varied speed of time's passage for people living at different altitudes. The difference is too small to be perceived but can be measured with precise enough clocks.

Scalar Oscillation explores the significance of the extremes of time and scale operating in much of modern physics. In this two-screen video installation, Diann Bauer, in collaboration with composer Seth Ayyaz, explores the difference between the complex features of time as they are understood in physics, and temporality - or the more everyday experience of time's passage.

The discrepancy between time and temporality is a fundamental example of the gulf that exists between realities of the material world, and how that world appears to us. Through an onslaught of image, text and sound, this work brings us face to face with the limits of our capacities to assimilate information. Bauer's script draws on a range of sources including physicist Carlo Rovelli, theorist Suhail Malik and Russian Cosmist Nikolai Fyodorov.

Courtesy of the artist. This work was developed as part of the Collide International Award, a partnership programme between Arts at CERN and FACT, and was co-produced by ScANNER.

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