17:00 - 18:30
Paleis der Academiën
Hertogsstraat 1 - 1000 Brussels
Digital lecture by W.J.T. Mitchell
“Present Tense 2020: For an Iconology of Time” is a reflection on the perennial philosophical question of temporality, situated in the present moment of simultaneous global crises. Instead of asking the traditional (and unanswerable) question, “what is time?” this talk asks how we picture time—and the present moment—in metaphors, patterns, forms, and iconic events. What can we learn from an anachronistic coupling of contemporary images and media spectacles with ancient figures of time such as Kronos, Kairos, and Aion? How have different scales of time—climate change, political cycles, the course of a pandemic, the “split second” of police decision making—converged to produce an epoch of special historic intensity, especially in the United States? Why is the present moment, the year 2020, an especially good time for thinking about time?
Registration required to receive the livestream link or, alternatively, attend the digital lecture in the Palace of the Academies, Brussels (limited seats available).
Programme
17:00 Introduction
17:05 Digital lecture by W.J.T. Mitchell
18:10 Debate
18:30 End
Activity in the context of the think cycle Image Science.
