Time and Temporality

Time and temporality

Danielle Mazzeo
A response to Discussion Week 2: Materiality: ethnographies of material culture

Posted at Feb 12/2007 12:07AM

Robert W. Preucel and Lynn Meskell propose that a key aspect of understanding concepts of materiality is the notion of embodiment, which describes “the locus of the body as a material grounding for subjective experience” (15). In other words, human perceptions of materiality are based on experiencing the world through the materiality of our own bodies. Similarly, concepts about temporality are also based on bodily experiences, but through the body as temporary. In fact, human perceptions of time are so ingrained in bodily experience that we cannot fully conceive of the notion of being out of time or infinite, because we can fully comprehend our own finiteness.

We perceive our bodies as being in the present, with the past and future on either side of us. This sort of spatial imaging of ourselves positioned in time limits how we are able to perceive of time. These perceptions, however, are malleable. For example, as technologies become more complex and readily available, human ideas about how time should be filled and how much time should be allotted for certain situations are dramatically altered. Particularly, transportational technologies that allowed people to travel over a given space in a shortened amount of time were extremely affecting. With the advent of roadways that spanned nations, then later railroads, cars, and finally planes and jets, a given space seemed to be shortened because the time needed to get from Point A to Point B was shortened. Even though distance is an unchanging constant, time, as we perceive it, is intrinsically relative.

In contemporary modern society, in which a mile can be traveled in a minute or less, dominant notions about time are also reflected in many forms of media: commercials that are 30 seconds or less with numerous cuts and edits that last three to four seconds each; movies that last for an hour and half but tell stories that can span days or even years; and billboards with such short messages that you can read them while driving 70 miles per hour on a highway. Fast access to information, as well as people, ideas, and things, have changed our expectations of how time should be used and experienced. But these developments have only occurred in the last 20 or 30 years, which means that this concept of time cannot be mapped onto older societies. Because notions about time itself have changed so dramatically over the centuries, notions about how to fill time have also evolved. Archaeologists and anthropologists hypothesize about the life cycles and daily events—such as initiations, marriages, divorces, births, and deaths (9)—of past societies through their own biases of modern perceptions about what time and temporality are.

An interesting aspect of human perceptions of time is, while space and materials are tangible—with perhaps the exception of space without confines, or infinite space—time is a completely abstract notion. Although the changes that occur over time are tangible, they are merely indicators of the passage of time, and do not represent time itself. Although the concepts of spatiality and materiality can be abstract, space and materials are generally perceived objectively. For example, two people looking at an apple can agree that it is red and has a stem. Time, however, is perceived internally as an abstract experience, and so it is generally perceived subjectively. Two people sitting in the same class may have completely different experiences of time: one may say that the class seemed long, while the other may say it flew by. Similarly, perceptions of temporality can also be subjective: a child may think a 20 year old person is ancient, while a senior citizen will think 20 years is a young age. Ideas about what is old, new, or young can change the way people perceive the qualities of an object that is generally perceived of objectively, affecting how the object interacts and influences people and surroundings. In the context of time, a material object’s agency becomes relative, due to the variability of perceptions of time.

Posted at Feb 22/2007 09:28PM:
omur: I was particularly interested in your tackling with the issues of bodily experience of temporality, blending of temporality with spatiality and materiality, the modern conception of the movement, all of which touched on a few things we have discussed in class. Cultural specifity of time perceptions and its significance in the constitution of ancient and modern subjectivities are particularly crucial points we need to discuss further during the semester.