Exhibition & Publication January 2012

Time Capsules and Conditions of Now is an artistic research project initiated by curator and art critic Fatos Üstek and supported by Vision Forum, Linköpings Universitet, Sweden. The project investigates the notion of encounter through the introduction of a variety of conditions where the reception and recollection of the ‘present moment’ diverges.

Time Capsules and Conditions of Now simultaneously takes the form of a publication and an exhibition. The research team is made up of artists, curators and writers who have together embarked upon heterogeneous explorations of the conditions of now in the continuously shifting constellation of time-presence-gravity. Lisa Skuret, Vanda Playford, Kaz, Ole Hagen, Soledad Garcia and Jean Matthee, have undertaken experimentation at sites of historical figures such as Sir John Soane, T.S. Eliot, E. Swedenborg and S. Freud along with first-person experiences of shamanic journeying with Zoe Bran, gardening with quantum physicist Julian Barbour and meditating at 10-day vipassana silence retreat.

For this phase of the project the artists and curators in shifting from an engagement within the group, have used their research and experiences to create objects of reflection and interaction for an audience. The exhibition at David Roberts Art Foundation, London (06-12.01.2012) is accompanied by a publication. Time Capsules and Conditions of Now is the outcome of several group actions, but the physical manifestation in the space is also a zone where time speeds up or slows down to reveal the multi-dimensional yet immanently insubstantial omnipresence of the eternal now. The project playfully activates a flux of encounters and transformational objects while the artworks take on eclectic forms: a sound, a letter, a photograph, a diagram, a scent, a journey, a lecture and a book.

The publication is a two-dimensional leporello, designed by Simon Josebury, printed at Calvert, London, January, 2012.
ISBN: 978-91-978934-6-6

LUNÄ Table Talk @ Spike Island 15.06.2011

Marjolijn Dijkman's LUNÄ (2010), part of her Spike Island exhibition Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, pays tribute to the Lunar Society, a group of eighteenth century thinkers who met to discuss the topics of their age including exploration, collecting and the possibility of progress. The artist has reproduced the large oval table around which they held their meetings in a portable, flat pack form that she can transport with her around the world to stage similar conversations.

At Spike Island the group invite the audience to participate in a series of playful engagements with time and presence, while exploring these phenomena through artistic, authorial and curatorial productions. The event coincides with the full moon, in homage to the original Lunar Society.

Gardening with Julian Barbour 21.5.11

On the 21st of May, the group visited Julian Barbour, quantum physicist, at his home in the north of Oxfordshire.



We dove into various spaces of investigation on the nature of time and features of gravity while working with him in his delightful garden.

Talk at Birmingham University 10.5.11

Research Symposium:
Time Capsules and Conditions of Now

Tuesday 10 May 5.30 – 7.30pm

In a series of BIAD symposiums on interdisciplinary research; researchers, PhD and MA students are invited to a presentation by curator Fatos Ustek and artist/GP Vanda Playford in conversation with Ole Hagen on the notion of speculative research, collaboration and interdisciplinary experimentation.

Journey back, 30.4.11

Objects of Resemblance, Correspondance and Reflection by Fatos Ustek

On the train journey back to London, Fatos has distributed five envelopes specially accustomed to each participant carrying various selection of objects. She has asked from the receivers of the envelopes to reflect upon a possible relationship with the objects-contained, which have been collected by the universal consciousness during their retreat and channelled through a selection taken place beforehand. Upon a completing a narrative shared in the group, each could pick one of the objects and claim ownership.

Dhamma Dipa Vipassana Retreat 19-30.4

Between 19 - 30 April we attended a Vipassana Retreat at Dhamma Dipa, Hereford. For 10 days, we abstained from talking, stealing, killing, sexual conduct and lies - attaining Noble Silence - with a regularity of eating and meditating, we have studied the mastery of 'now'.


Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation. It was rediscovered by Gotama Buddha more than 2500 years ago and was taught by him as a universal remedy for universal ills, i.e., an Art Of Living.

Train journey to Hereford 19.04.11

by Kaz

We all met at Paddington Station with our bags to go on a train journey to Hereford via Newport Gwent.

Kaz had requested the member of the group to watch the movies listed below relating to train journeys before arriving at Paddington.

On the train, each member was issued with a notebook.

Swedenborg Encounter, 17.4.11

Intuiting the Swedenborgian UFO

by Lisa Skuret


A site-specific performative workshop exploring methods of collaborative ‘reading’ and ‘writing’, time, and intuition through exercises drawing on polymath and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg’s extensive knowledge productions. Activities included singing with and after-service tea, biscuits and conversation with members of the Swedenborgian Church congregation; and outdoor group exercises exploring methodologies from psychometry, flash-fiction writing, meditation practice, and chaos magic.

Shamanic Journey with Zoe Bran

The group spent the weekend of 5-6 January 2011 with Zoë Brân who generously introduced them to Shamanism and Shamanic Journeying.

Earlier this year our group worked with Shaman UK, a London-based organisation facilitated by Zoë Brân. The possibilities of working with shamanism, through altered consciousness and the shamanic journey, came to our attention when we took part in a presentation by one of our members, Vanda Playford. Vanda had given a presentation to the group on the life and work of TS Eliot, a presentation which in part derived from a shamanic journey she made with Zoë Brân for the purpose of exploring Eliot from a fresh perspective. This way of working seemed unusually creative and stimulating and so the weekend course was arranged.

TS Eliot 13.11.10

Time, Narrative and T.S. Eliot

by Vanda Playford

Vanda Playford decided to take us to two different venues, on the trace of T. S. Eliot. After meeting at the tube station in Kensington, we walked to the church that Eliot was a warden for 12 years of his late life. Vanda has informed us on Eliot and the peculiarities of his life that has taken her interest. After walking in the church we have sat on a corner where Vanda read us through her Shamanic journey she has taken to prepare for today's meeting. her journey was so resonant with strong points on Eliot's practice. Following, we started reading from Eliot's poetry (Four Quartets, mainly). After spending a good amount of time, and arriving at the limits of the patience of the priest, we have left the premises to go and have a drink at Eliot's local pub. There waited another task. Vanda asked us to write a story (in automated writing) on time on the cash machine rolls. After the session of writing, everyone switched their story which were read aloud. We have rolled our stories back and placed in a box to be thrown to the lake in the neighborhood. (For many reasons, neither the information of the lake nor the time will be announced.)

Freud Museum, 30.10.10

at Freud Museum

by Jean Matthee

After walking though the museum and relating to the objects that surrounds us within pauses, Jean invited us to make our own mobius strip. Referring to Lygia Clark's performance of cutting continuously the Mobius strip from the middle, she asked us to think of a limit of ours - a limit that we want to exceed and after a determinate feel about that limit we started cutting our own mobius strips where exceeding was metaphorically and physically in-situ. Following, we were invited one-by-one into Freud's study and play again with an elasticated mobius strip and associate with the patients that have been temporarily residing on the infamous coach. The whole encounter is filmed by Sara, as Jean wanted to position an investigation on thought and image.

Sir John Soane's Museum, 16.10.10

Soane the second and the problem of Now
a series of playful meditations on time and presence

by Ole Hagen

JOHN SOANE 2^ND AND THE PROBLEM OF NOW

The group meet first in the front room, where O gives the following introduction:

Sir John Soane was a quite successful neoclassical architect and an initiate (1813) in the fraternal organisation of the Masonic Lodge. But despite being a member of an organisation with an idea of a Supreme Being called G.A.O.T.U, the Great Architect of the Universe and constructing and preserving some monumental architecture himself, John Soane was not immune to the problem of entropy and the passage of time. His remains are buried at a tomb he designed for himself and his wife at St.Pancras Old Church graveyard, a site with an ancient pagan history. But that is not the main point here.