In Duration of Time – the project

The project ‘In the duration of time’ is a collaboration between multimedia artist Marco Douma and sound artist Roel Meelkop which investigates the question: Can you visualise the experience of time?

Our work reveals a fascination for exploring the indescribable and the ambiguous/dual, a space where certainty falls away and one can experience a moment of thoughtlessness. This concept of “indefinable space” is a recurring theme in our contemplative audiovisual works. We try to capture the sensation of slowing movements, rhythms and tones in nature and their immediate environment in image and sound, allowing one’s thoughts to stand still for a moment or even longer. This emphasis on slowing down time and space, and dissolving the boundaries between foreground and background, is reminiscent of the philosophical concept of’duration’ (la durée), coined in the late nineteenth century by the philosopher Henri Bergson.

Bergson contrasted time as a series of separate measurable moments with time as an indivisible whole. He called this concept duration, the incessant flow of life and consciousness. According to Bergson, duration cannot be measured or divided into separate parts,but only experienced. This notion of duration is reflected in our works, in which we aim to capture the slow, fluid movements of nature and create a prolonged moment of contemplation.

Moreover, the images and sounds incorporated in the videos point to the role of memory and how it shapes our perception of time. Memories are not stored as individual moments, but rather as a continuous stream of experiences. In this way, recognisable fragments serve as a starting point for the videos and represent a memory of a particular moment. The integration of these memories in the videos blurs the boundaries between past and present. It is no different with the sound tracks. The sounds develop slowly and sometimes there is even some repetition. But never is there a fixed,predictable regularity. Both the images and the sound tracks could exist on their own, but together, they create a certainmore value, further emphasising the concept of duration.

The ongoing exploration continues….

The selections below are stills from eight audiovisual works from the series In Duration of Time.

We show the audiovisual works only under optimal conditions. In a cinema hall or in an audiovisual installation setup. We do not show the video works on the internet because the works require a certain concentration that a smartphone, desktop computer, tablet and such cannot provide.