Time on our Hands

Abstract

Note: !is essay was originally delivered as a lecture at a conference on ‘Contemporaneities’ in Ghent, Belgium, in March of 2016. In editing the talk for publication, I have retained many of the formal properties of an oral presentation. If the contemporaneity of the oral event appears removed in this instance, the question at the base of the lecture remains: How long is "now" and what is at stake in extending a hand across time? As such, the talk – composed of a lead-in and two stories – may be considered ongoing, much like a hail in an event of call and response. !e interval in call and response that this talk both responds to and again inaugurates should be open, full of hesitation, and without conclusion – much as this essay is written to be.