Transfuzija vremena višegodišnji je multimedijalni projekt umjetnice s bazom u Ljubljani, Line Rice, koji istražuje fenomen vremena i mogućnosti njegova poimanja u suvremeno informacijsko doba. Umjetničke strategije Line Rice zasnivaju se na upotrebi jezika kao alata sporazumijevanja i reprezentaciji modernih alata mjerenja/iskaza vremena s kojima ideju individualnog i kolektivnog poimanja vremena čini vidljivom promatraču. Jezik, koji je (ne)moćan alat kojim interpretiramo svijet oko nas i koji nikada ne prenosi do kraja ljudski doživljaj, osjećaj i iskustvo ovdje je reprezent jednako tako manjkavih sposobnosti da do kraja osjetimo i shvatimo vrijeme, koje mjerimo i „osjećamo“ modernim alatima. Naučeni smo vrijeme doživljavati linearno, no ono je u ovim post vremenima, kao što i sama autorica ukazuje svojim radovima, sve samo ne linearno ili kronološko: ono je spekulativno, fluidno, nestalno, neprestano se transformira, pretače, a prošlost, sadašnjost i budućnost postaju pojmovi koji gube svoje tradicionalne značajke. Kompleksna društva današnjice, u kojima se izgubio primat ljudskog iskustva, postoje samo u relaciji s digitalnom infrastrukturom i kaotičnim mrežama, a pojedinac i subjektivno poimanje vremena u potpunosti su dezintegrirani. Kada razmišljamo o vremenu, bez prevelikih znanja o povijesti percepcije vremena, nameće nam se pitanje odakle uopće doživljaj protoka vremena, postoji li on u nama neovisno o kontekstu, društvu i vremenu u kojem živimo ili je to koncept nametnut od trenutka kada smo o vremenu počeli razmišljati u relacijama mjerljivosti, njegove iskoristivosti i naše produktivnosti. Pitamo se što je s vremenom prije ljudskog postojanja i pogleda, vremenu izvan ljudskog iskustva, poviješću Zemlje toliko dalekom i dubokom da ju je nemoguće pojmiti, koja seže milijarde godina unazad (deep time), je li onda sadašnjost bila prisutna. Izbacivanje čovjeka iz cjelokupne slike događa se, na neki način, i sada, u post digitalno doba kada su se koncepti prošlosti, sadašnjosti i budućnosti u potpunosti izokrenuli: algoritmi predviđaju ono što ni sami nismo svjesni da želimo i na taj je način budućnost postala sadašnjost, a prošlost je svojim nedostatkom spoznajnih alata postala nedovoljna za razumijevanje sadašnjosti. Nije li budućnost u tom slučaju već ovdje i apsolutno je bespredmetno razgovarati o sada i ovdje? (osim ako krenemo u razgovore o tome u čisto duhovnom, ontološkom smislu). Ono što se događa u sadašnjosti, bazirano je na prisvajanju budućnosti navodi se u sjajnom tekstu The speculative time complex.1 Dakle, sadašnjost je više uvjetovana budućnošću nego prošlošću, a stare postavke ne vrijede i manjkave su za razumijevanje današnjice. Naša percepcija vremena se neminovno promijenila i na nju utječe čitava mreža različitih nestalnih oslonaca koji nam onemogućuju osjećaj sigurnosti. Na tragu kritike sadašnjosti je i J. Derrida koji govori da je sadašnjost korumpirana prošlošću i budućnošću, da uvijek postoji odsutnost u središtu prisutnosti i da se povijest, uključujući povijest umjetnosti, ne može tumačiti kao povorku prisutnosti2. Dakle, sadašnjost je u spekulativnom odnosu i prema prošlosti i prema budućnosti.
Svjetlosna instalacija NowHere poetična je i filozofska igra riječi koje, zavisno od toga koji elementi svijetle, prevodimo kao nigdje, ovdje, sada. Slova koja podsjećaju na prizore iz distopijskih filmova u ritmičkom bljeskanju pozivaju nas na promišljanje značenja riječi, a također upućuje na nestalnost struktura na koje smo se naviknuti oslanjati. Ili možda na doživljaj protoka vremena iz različitih perspektiva. S jedne strane, jedino što postoji je ovdje i sada, i tako je bilo od prvog trenutka postojanja. No problem nastaje što smo u svojim nastojanjima življenja uglavnom nigdje, u procijepima, i u nekoj vrsti pokušaja da zaustavimo vrijeme. Još jedan element, ovaj puta psihološki, koji nam onemogućuje da doživimo sada jest što naš doživljaj vremena (kao i identitet) oblikuju i sjećanja i strahovi. Postoje li onda uopće prošlost i budućnost, koliko naša percepcija vremena u datom trenutku utječe na sada? U tekstu Merce Alsine, kustosice Izložbe Here now/Nowhere održane 2018. i 2019. godine u Ljubljani i Barceloni, navode se riječi austrijskog teoretičara Armena Avanessiana koji kaže da jezik mijenja značenje vremena i na materijalnoj i ontološkoj razini, a ne samo lingvističkoj i konceptualnoj, dok autorica teksta zaključuje da ovaj rad nije samo puka jezična igra već prijedlog za materijalnu i ontološku transformaciju prostora i vremena, ili barem načina kako ih im doživljavamo.3 Rad Very important notifications about time kroz animaciju riječi na dva ekrana izlistava sintagme koje je autorica prikupila pretražujući na google tražilici pojmove: time is, past is, present is, time will, the future was itd. Sakupljajući najčešće rezultate pretraživanja autorica dobiva vrstu presjeka razmišljanja današnjeg čovjeka o vremenu i dominantnu percepciju. Animacija Big time sastoji se od kronološki animiranih screenshotova mobitela sakupljenih tijekom 2019. i 2020. godine, a sadrži ponavljajuće ili simetrične brojeve digitalnog sata. Sam način izlaganja doslovno reprezentira ekran mobitela, kao što i doslovno upućuje na ubrzanost današnjeg života, svijet koji se temelji na mjerenju i uspoređivanju, dok je vrijednost naših života izjednačena s produktivnošću. Što to uopće znači da se živi ubrzano i koliko je informacijsko doba i neprestana izloženost dokazima o prolaznosti promijenila našu percepciju vremena? I misli i vrijeme su u korijenu svih naših strahova pa je li onda vrijeme kao mjereni pojam uopće važan za ljudsku samospoznaju. Svojevrsnim redizajniranjem suvremenih alata za mjerenje vremena, autorica dovodi u pitanje i svoj položaj u sadašnjosti, koje, osim mjernih jedinica, ne daje puno čvrstih oslonaca. Poetska performativna akcija (započeta 2006.) pretakanja tri decilitara vode iz jednog u drugo more (Jadran, Sjeverno more, Atlantski ocean i dr.) upućuje na relativnost mjerljivog vremena i također otvara pitanja doživljaja vremena, cikličnosti i vječnosti. Radnja se može shvatiti kao ilustracija koncepta cikličnog vremena i kao metafora za prolaz modernog vremena. Cikličnost, gdje vrijeme potencijalno nikad ne ističe, djeluje apsurdno ako je usporedimo s linearnom percepcijom vremena kakvu poznajemo na Zapadu, gdje vremena stalno nedostaje, a neiskorišteno vrijeme se nepovratno gubi, kaže Jasna Jernejšek u predgovoru izložbe Pretakanje vremena.4 Element ljudskog faktora u prirodnom, geološkom, iz vremena kada čovjeka nije bilo, također donosi nove asocijacije i pogled na vrijeme.
Može li kritičko poimanje vremena ponuditi i kritički pogled na trenutak u kojem se nalazimo te pružiti mogućnost za nove sadašnjosti, rješenja, odnose, humanije sisteme? Autorica vjeruje da može, ali uz stalno preispitivanje naše pozicije u sistemima koji se vrtoglavo izmjenjuju i koji daju malo prostora za bilo kakvu vrstu sigurnosti.
Tanja Spoljar za samostojno razstavo Transfuzija vremena v Galeriji AK v Koprivnici, 2021
time transfusion, tanja spoljar, 2021
Transfusion of time is a perennial multimedia project of Ljubljana-based artist Lina Rice, which explores the phenomenon of time and the possibilities of understanding it in the modern information age. Lina Rice’s artistic strategies are based on the use of language as a tool of communication and the representation of modern tools of time measurement/representation with which the idea of individual and collective perception of time is made visible to the observer. Language, which is an (im)powerful tool with which we interpret the world around us and which never fully conveys the human experience, feeling and experience, is here a representative of equally deficient abilities to fully feel and understand time, which we measure and “feel” with modern tools . We are taught to experience time linearly, but in these post times, as the author herself points out in her works, it is anything but linear or chronological: it is speculative, fluid, unstable, constantly transforming, overflowing, and the past, present and future they become concepts that lose their traditional features. Today’s complex societies, in which the primacy of human experience has been lost, exist only in relation to digital infrastructure and chaotic networks, and the individual and the subjective perception of time are completely disintegrated. When we think about time, without too much knowledge about the history of time perception, the question arises where the experience of the passage of time comes from, does it exist in us independently of the context, society and time in which we live, or is it a concept imposed from the moment we started talking about time to think in terms of measurability, its usability and our productivity. We wonder what happened to the time before human existence and sight, the time beyond human experience, the history of the Earth so far and deep that it is impossible to comprehend, which goes back billions of years (deep time), if the present was then present. Expulsion of man from the whole picture is happening, in a way, even now, in the post-digital age when the concepts of past, present and future have been completely turned upside down: algorithms predict what we are not even aware that we want, and in this way the future has become the present , and the past, with its lack of cognitive tools, has become insufficient for understanding the present. Isn’t the future in that case already here and it is absolutely pointless to talk about the now and here? (unless we start talking about it in a purely spiritual, ontological sense). What happens in the present is based on the appropriation of the future, as stated in the excellent text The speculative time complex.1 Thus, the present is conditioned more by the future than by the past, and the old assumptions are invalid and deficient for understanding today. Our perception of time has inevitably changed and is influenced by a whole network of various unstable supports that prevent us from feeling secure. J. Derrida follows the criticism of the present, who says that the present is corrupted by the past and the future, that there is always an absence at the center of presence, and that history, including the history of art, cannot be interpreted as a procession of presence2. Thus, the present is in a speculative relationship with both the past and the future.
The NowHere light installation is a poetic and philosophical play on words that, depending on which elements light up, we translate as nowhere, here, now. Letters reminiscent of scenes from dystopian films in rhythmic flashing invite us to reflect on the meaning of words, and also point to the impermanence of the structures we are used to relying on. Or maybe to experience the passage of time from different perspectives. On the one hand, the only thing that exists is here and now, and it has been so from the first moment of existence. But the problem arises that in our efforts to live mostly nowhere, in the gaps, and in some kind of attempt to stop time. Another element, this time psychological, that prevents us from experiencing the now is that our experience of time (as well as identity) is shaped by memories and fears. Do there even exist a past and a future, how much does our perception of time at a given moment affect the present? In the text of Merce Alsina, curator of the Here now/Nowhere exhibition held in 2018 and 2019 in Ljubljana and Barcelona, the words of the Austrian theoretician Armen Avanessian are quoted, who says that language changes the meaning of time on both the material and ontological levels, not only the linguistic and conceptual , while the author of the text concludes that this work is not just a mere language game, but a proposal for the material and ontological transformation of space and time, or at least the way we perceive them.3 The work Very important notifications about time, through the animation of words on two screens, lists the phrases that the author collected by searching on the Google search engine the terms: time is, past is, present is, time will, the future was, etc. By collecting the most common search results, the author gets a kind of cross-section of the thinking of today’s man about time and the dominant perception. The Big time animation consists of chronologically animated mobile phone screenshots collected during 2019 and 2020, featuring repeating or symmetrical digital clock numbers. The very way of presentation literally represents the cell phone screen, as it literally points to the acceleration of today’s life, a world based on measurement and comparison, while the value of our lives is equated with productivity. What does it even mean to live fast and how much has the information age and constant exposure to evidence of transience changed our perception of time? Both thoughts and time are at the root of all our fears, so is time as a measured concept at all important for human self-knowledge. With a kind of redesign of modern tools for measuring time, the author also questions her position in the present, which, apart from measurement units, does not provide many solid supports. The poetic performative action (started in 2006) of transferring three deciliters of water from one sea to another (Adriatic, North Sea, Atlantic Ocean, etc.) points to the relativity of measurable time and also opens up issues of experiencing time, cyclicity and eternity. The plot can be understood as an illustration of the concept of cyclical time and as a metaphor for the passing of modern times. Cyclicality, where time potentially never expires, seems absurd if we compare it with the linear perception of time as we know it in the West, where time is constantly lacking, and unused time is irretrievably lost, says Jasna Jernejšek in the foreword to the exhibition Flowing Time. 4 The element of the human factor in natural , geological, from a time when there was no man, also brings new associations and a view of time.
Can a critical understanding of time also offer a critical view of the moment we are in and provide the possibility for new present times, solutions, relationships, more humane systems? The author believes that it can, but with constant re-examination of our position in systems that are rapidly changing and that leave little room for any kind of security.
Tanja Spoljar for a solo show Time Transfusion at AK Gallery in Koprivnica.
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