Reading In Depth: Deep Time in Theory, Literature and Visual Art

This course considers the humanities and deep time—time stretched out beyond the human lifespan. The challenge that deep time poses to the human imagination has grown more urgent to address in light of our current environmental crisis. What can the humanities teach us about deep time? We will approach this question in three ways: 1) by looking beyond conceptions of space as female and passive and foregrounding non-binarized conceptions of space that are agentive and dynamic, 2) by examining human and non-human relationships in diverse cultural traditions, and 3) by considering how artists and writers worldwide create their own scales of deep time and inscribe rhythms of human and non-human life into their works. The course will run as a workshop and will be primarily concerned with actively testing research methods and artistic practices to better understand deep time.