FACE NO DIAL OF A CLOCK. Investigating asynchronous experiences of present times by means of art by Laura von Niederhäusern

The subjective experience of time pressure in today’s efficiency- and performance-oriented society is fuelled by a paradox: acceleration is omnipresent due to economic and technological demands, while at the same time complexity and self-responsibility require more time for decisions. This exposition examines individual and institutional ways of dealing with discrepant time demands. Where and how do different age groups experience divergent time regimes that occur simultaneously? Which techniques do individuals and institutions use or invent to synchronize different time perceptions, rhythms, and activities? How can artistic research create asynchronicity and make it experienceable through filmic means? And, finally, to what extent can filmic thinking produce ways of knowing that convey (as yet) unverbalized perceptions of time? Methodologically, this research combines analytical and artistic approaches in an essayistic procedure comprising cinematic practice and writing. On the one hand, it explores different aspects of divergent perceptions of time in a series of case studies under the leitmotif of “asynchronous determinations of time.” Situated in both immaterial and care work, in which bodily and affective temporalities are highly important, these empirical investigations consider the role of lifetime (age, biography, memory) and temporal modes (tempos; imperatives, indicatives, subjunctives). On the other hand, this study develops specific artistic procedures for focusing perception by means of narration, fragmentation, montage, visual and linguistic interventions, extractions and interweavings. Since simultaneous non-simultaneities (tend to) overwhelm subjective experience, the procedures adopted in this research contribute to new forms of filmic thinking and images of thought. They should be understood as an incentive to empathize with different understandings of time.

Face No Dial of a Clock
a cross-temporal fugue

Film-essay by Laura von Niederhäusern

2023, HD, 53:22 min.

German, Swiss German, French (with English subtitles)

In what way do diagnoses such as ADHD, burnout or dementia call our relationship to temporality into question? Filmmaker Laura von Niederhäusern set out to investigate individual and institutional ways of dealing with unaligned temporalities in different care settings.

Face No Dial of a Clock – a cross-temporal fugue is a subtle examination of perceptions of time, exploring different age perspectives and life situations in which temporal discrepancies complicate everyday life. An unexpected encounter creates a connection with Maya Deren's film project on Haitian voodoo rituals in the 1940s. Combining images and narrative strands into a stream of thought, the film essay asks questions about life's own sense of times that deviate from the social pressure to perform. It is not acceleration that determines these relations of (self-)care, but the capacity for empathy and a sense of interdependence.

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