Recalcitrant Temporalities: Heterogenous Time and the Simulated Image

This chapter documents the results of practice-based research that uses assemblage theory as a framework for understanding how time in computer-simulated artworks (CSA) is heterogeneously constructed across human, non-human, material and virtual domains. Through the production of three ‘real-time’ simulated environments, programmed to change over extended durations, assemblage theory is used to challenge the simplicity of ‘real-time’ as a definition, and instead offers a framework for time that is ontologically distributed across domains. This framework of ‘recalcitrant temporalities’ is used to examine the specific ranges of time manifest within CSA— from the micro temporalities of computer-generated imagery and the expansive durations of the minerals and materials used to produce them. The artworks discussed in this paper were created with a variety of animation and game engine software and exhibited within gallery settings. An iterative, action research-based methodology was employed to reflect on each artwork in relation to existing theories of simulation, materiality and time. A brief overview is provided of the different artworks and approaches to constructing time, followed by a longer discussion of the framework and its philosophical implications.