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A Different Time

This website is academic research made for a site-specific project of  ECA Contemporary Art Practice.  All of the works including texts, photos, the map, videos, etc. are created by Taiwanese artist Hsin-Yi Wang.

Statement

I am very interested in the idea of deep time. The concept of deep time was first introduced by Scottish geologist James Hutton, it represents the multimillion year time frame of the Earth and the shifts happening in this very deep geologic time.  Compared to the long history of the Earth, the human epoch — the Anthropocene —  is extremely short but has changed the environment in irreversible ways.


Living in an ancient city likes Edinburgh, I feel the deep time much more strongly than when staying in modern Asian cities. The time slice here is clear to be seen when the 340 million-year-old volcanic rock juxtaposes with a concrete building. For me,  the city is a perfect site to explore different periods of time in the landscape.

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A video map

The video map is based on a chronological map that shows the earliest urban pattern in Edinburgh before the 15th century. On this map, the Waverley train station and the meadows were once a loch, the castle and royal mile are the first construction, and the extinct volcanoes are always there. The map mainly comprises 7 stories of the timescape, a takeaway show, and a short animation about the timescale. 

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Playing with time

In these video stories, time is perceivable through a relatively short-term movement. On the other hand, through the audio and the text, another time is implied when the landscapes were much different from what they are today. This project intends to explore different time's flow in Edinburgh, and to speculate what the landscape has been waiting for and what comes in the end.

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Waiting on the timescape

A non-human object, such as a rock, a tree, or a mountain, usually has a much longer life-time than a human. They have been sitting in a place and witnessed changes in a deep time, which humans will never experience. There is always a cycle in nature happens in the deep time, it seems like all of the objects are waiting on the earth to finish the cycle. For example, a volcano might have been waiting for the next eruption. However, sometimes the cycle is interrupted then it comes to an end, but the object might have never known what they are waiting for will never come again.

Before you start 

◑ This web is designed to be displayed on both desktop and smartphone; however, you will have a better experience by watching on the desktop. 

◑ The video stories will be played automatically but the sound will not. It is highly recommended to read the text while playing the video with sound.  

 

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