THE LAST EIGHT MINUTES:
Everything We take to be a Constant is Changing
It takes thousands of years for photons of sunlight to migrate from the sun’s core to its surface.
Eight minutes ago, some of those photons left the sun and traveled towards Earth. Which means: everything we see is bathed in eight-minute-old light.
The Last Eight Minutes invites participants to re-establish an awareness of our direct connection to the sun, which has fueled planetary systems on Earth for the past 4.6 billion years.
Photons (the smallest amount of light perceptible to our eyes) arrive every micro-second on Earth. They flow into the gallery space through floor-to-ceiling windows, into our eyes and generate our perceptions. Each particle/wave is new and different from the one that arrived micro-seconds before. The sunlight we experience as “given” or “stable” is constantly changing.
The Last Eight Minutes was first staged as a micro-production at the former Pfizer Factory on April 23, 002017. It was part of the group exhibition con•tin•u•ums (time beyond lifetimes) curated by Patrick Jaojoco. It offered a focused context for experiencing singular moments of change across eight minutes and 24 seconds of a photon’s journey to Earth. It drew upon and translated aspects of the Japanese tea ceremony, including providing hospitality to strangers and guests, and the brewing and drinking of green tea with sweets (provided by wagashi asobi, Tokyo).
By way of this micro-production, we offered the question: “What is the I that sees through eight-minute old light?”
Further documentation of the April 23rd event is available via the FOP blog.
Pasquart Swizterland, image: Gunnar Meier
The Last Eight Minutes was included in the 002018 group show, ZEITSPUREN – The Power of Now, Pasquart, Swizterland.
The exhibition examined the aesthetic and cultural significance of time within contemporary narratives and its impact on how we structure our lives and experiences. Further documenation of the installation can be found on the FOP blog.
What's Here: The Last 8 Minutes 4.23.002017 materials list: 1 star, 1 planet, eight minutes and 24 seconds of constantly arriving waves of photons, 93,466,655 miles of space, 12 invited guests and strangers, 1 sunflower, 1 vase, 12 folding chairs, 1 roll of yellow jute, 1 hook, 24 higashi designed and made by wasgashi asobi, 1 pack of kaishi (paper), 1 liter of New York City filtered water, 23.5 grams of gyokuro tea, 12 cups, 1 strainer, 1 tea beaker, 1 teapot, 1 tablecloth, 1 tea towel, vinyl window text, 1 bell, 1 scroll, 8 cyanotype prints, 8 sheets of white paper.
Left text, accompanying white paper:
Photons arriving over the next 8 minutes are currently this many miles away : 8 minutes 93,000,000 miles, 7 minutes / 81,375,000 miles, 6 minutes 69,750,000 miles, 5 minutes / 58,125,000, 4 minutes/ 46,500,000 miles, 3 minutes / 34,875,000 miles, 2 minutes / 23,250,000 miles, 1 minute / 11,625,0000 miles
Middle area without paper: “here/now”
Right text, under 8 cyanotypes on left side:
Arriving photons accumulated over: 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes, 5 minutes, 6 minutes, 7 minutes, 8 minutes
video footage by Tomson Tee; edited by smudge studio
The Last Eight Minutes' first iteration was staged as "Postcard Dispatch #4" for the Living Deep Time Year 00001 in September 002016
