​The Order of Time

An exhibition by Minimaforms: The work of Stephen and Theodore Spyropoulos

"We are Time. We are this space, this clearing opened by the traces of memory inside the connections between our neurons.” – Carlo Rovelli

The Order of Time is an immersive installation that reveals the ordering of space, constructing our evolving relationships through direct experiential discovery. Situated between physics, complexity and communication the work engages in our agency and understanding of the world. In 1969, George Spencer Brown published his seminal book Laws of Form, an attempt to straddle the boundaries between mathematics and philosophy in which he declared: ‘Draw a distinction and a universe comes into being.' In this one statement, the paradoxes of world-building and our relationship to it are outlined. If our understanding of the world is ours, then it remains, without action, inaccessible to others. The ‘world’, rather than something shared and understood, is plural, situated and in continuous formation. Worlds within worlds are understood through a cosmology of observations.

Physicist Carlo Rovelli reminds us that there is no future or past in physics. Everything understood remains in the ever-present. The Order of Time speaks to this understanding of time(s) as something situated and relational, examining world-building of infinite resolutions from the subatomic to the cosmological. The installation features three sculptural works that shift ordering scales and magnitude revealing through direct experience this dynamic interplay. Everything you see is your own invention.

The installation bridges art, science and technology, examining the forces of algorithmic structuring and simulation of life. Building on the work of John von Neumann (father of the modern computer) in his research of self-replicating machines, the invention of Cellular Automata, and John Conway’s Game of Life, the resultant three sections of time speak to the complex interactions of these associative rules in the construction of a model in the spirit of the Eames’ seminal short film Powers of Ten.

The work was originally commissioned as part of an exhibition that celebrated the life and work of Yona Friedman and is produced by Le Quadrilatère - Centre d’art de Beauvais, the Centre National Edition Art Image (CNEAI=) and the Frac Grand Large - Hauts-de-France in partnership with Idem + Arts and the Frac Picardie from the CNEA Yona Friedman Foundation. The exhibition was conceived by curators and museum directors Sylvie Boulanger, Keren Detton, Lucy Hofbauer and Marianne Friedman-Polonsky. Minimaforms are grateful to Lucy Hofbauer for the commission to explore the synergetic aspects of their work in dialogue with Yona Friedman.