Movement and Time in Art

The meeting will address an enduring challenge which is as old as art itself – that of representing motion and the passage of time in a static medium. As the inverse topic, we also propose to explore art wherein motion or the passage of time are integral to the work and explicit rather than implied or simulated – in mobiles, mechanically driven sculptures, artworks shaped by natural forces such as large-scale earthworks (Robert Smithson), and pieces designed to evolve in time.

While art historians have long appreciated dynamical effects in paintings and static sculptures, and artists have freely engaged in exploring them both in imitative and subversive ways, analyses by physicists have been scant, often undertaken at the margins of their research efforts. This working group, the first of its kind save for a small, precursor meeting at the University of Warsaw last June, will build on that experience and will endeavor to represent a manifold of approaches and viewpoints, aiming to review the current understanding of the role of time in art and to identify opportunities for fruitful research explorations. We hope to foster vigorous, open-ended exchanges and stimulate productive intellectual ferment.

The approach of this working group is par excellence multi- and cross-disciplinary. To optimize chances for an inspiring and constructive exchange of ideas, the meeting will encompass a broad range of experts who might not have had (or looked for) an opportunity to talk to each other before – physicists, mathematicians, neuroscientists, artists, and art historians. It is hoped that such a mix will serve to ensure long-term impacts and to define possible new research directions, encouraging continuing contacts and future collaborations.