DEEP TIME
(geological sublime)
NEW CIRCADIA
A Walk at Dusk, Casper David Friedrich, ca. 1830- 35
“…Stone challenges small, linear divisions of human history through its aeonic insistence. The lithic thickens time into multiple, densely sedimented, and combustively coincident temporalities. Its inhuman scale summons geologic contemplation, an extension of story far beyond accustomed durations…”
Stone: An Ecology of the Inhuman, Jeffery Jerome Cohen, 2015
...But as with deep water, it’s a battle to stay in deep time. We’re constantly brought back to the surface, engaged in our thoughts and needs of the moment…
The Oldest Living Things in the World, Rachael Sussman, 2014
Deep time, a reference to geological time, is a philosophical concept as well as a scientific idea. First described in the eighteenth century by the Scottish philosopher Hutton, deep time responded to a culture adhering to a Biblical time that attempted to date the creation story within more limited terms, the antediluvian being not much older than the earliest evidence of “civilization.” By contrast, deep time shifted the temporal expanse to natural forces, the evidence of which was permanently inscribed in the layering of rock. This more gradualist process of sedimentation and compression displaced a catastrophist version of events that emphasized flooding and eruption. This displacement through a geological notion of gradualism could then, in turn, offer a ground through which biological evolution could emerge.
EVENTS
Shrooms, Film Still, Director: CatK
Film Screening- Friday February 28, 2020
Shrooms (2016)
Director: CatK, 2:34min.
It has to be lived once and dreamed twice (2019)
Director: Rainer Kohlberger, 28min.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
Director: Werner Herzog, 1hr.35min
Closing Event, 12 Noon Thursday April 30 - 12 Noon Friday May 1, 2020
24 HOUR CAVE IN (a happening)
In the spirit of 1960’s happenings, New Circadia, Adventures in Mental Spelunking, marks it’s closing with CAVE IN, a series of performances, sonic interludes, films, speakers, panel discussions, and live open MIC readings to take place over a 24 hour period. Hosted in the Daniel’s new subterranean gallery, New Circadia’s CAVE IN is organized around six temporal themes: DEEP Time, WASTING Time, MARKING Time, STORY Time, DREAM Time, and BREAK Time. Start time is 12 Noon, closing the next day at 12 Noon
All are welcome to drop down and tune in throughout the 24 hours.
SELECTED NOTES & REFERENCES
Stone: An Ecology of the Inhuman, Jeffery Jerome Cohen, 2015
Notes on the underground: an essay on technology, society, and the imagination, Rosalind H. Williams, 2008
Heavenly Caves: Reflections on the Garden Grotto, Naomi Miller
A Culture of Stone, Inka Perspectives on Rock, Carolyn Dean, 2010
Underland, A Deep Time Journey, Robert Macfarlane, 2019
A Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne, 1864
Subterranean Worlds: A Critical Anthology (early classics of Sci -Fi) Peter Fittin, 20014
www.10000yearclock.net
VISUAL REFERENCES
Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology (second American edition 1857) showing the origin of different rock types - frontispiece