Brad Carlile Photo Blog

My current work highlights change in new ways. In April at the Photolucida Portfolio review, I was talking about my work to a curator. I mentioned that my work also had time changing, he quickly jump to the conclusion that I was portraying the passage of time. He said, “come on that is not how we portray time in art.”

But that has always been my point, as artists we need to avoid simply portraying simplistic literal representations but to invoke. Where does time fit?

I often use this quote from one of the world’s leading string-theory physicist:

“I do believe in time,”I just think our intuition about it is wrong.”
Brian Greene, physicist at Columbia, 2004

Is the only artist icon of “time passing” a clock or a blurred image? Are clocks in art are as archaic and trite and misleading as a 15th century praying hands of the pope Sixtus IV proves he was holy even while witnessing a torture of the Inquisition.

Also look at this gem, ”In No Time” by Tim Folger, Discover Magazine, June 2007

“The possibility that time may not exist is known among physicists as the ‘problem of time.’ It may be the biggest, but it is far from the only temporal conundrum. Vying for second place is this strange fact: The laws of physics don’t explain why time always points to the future. All the laws—whether Newton’s, Einstein’s, or the quirky quantum rules—would work equally well if time ran backward. As far as we can tell, though, time is a one-way process; it never reverses, even though no laws restrict it.”

…and don’t think that physicists completely re-write math all of the
time. Quantum theory has been around for 50 years and is one of the most successful theories ever. New theories must as accurately predict everything quantum theory does and more.

Don’t get my wrong I’m still inspired by the lots of traditional art dealing with time. As my friends know, I actually spend most of my time looking at non-photographic work. But at the same time I’m also plowing through how physicists are getting a deeper understanding of reality. This is background to activate my mind, my art does not come from equations.

I’m thinking of changing the name of one of my current series to “Tempus Incognito”, but no thoughts on this until its time.