The Habitat of Time is an international arts-led research initiative that engages with rapid shifts in our experience and understanding of time that are unfolding in network society and the unstable conditions of globalisation. In a climate of accelerating, compressed and volatile time, the initiative highlights the role of arts research in connecting perspectives on time found in different fields, and speculating on human and more-than-human temporal relations: from the geological, historical and sensory, to the cultural, technological and cosmic.

The research thinks through the material conditions of reality to focus on the way that time as a medium shapes and is embedded within our perception of life, the structure of societies, and the vastness of the physical world. The initiative evolves through an iterative research process of residencies, seminar, exhibition and publishing activities. The research framework was developed through Bacon’s role at UNSW Art & Design and NIEA in Sydney, Australia.

From 27th January to 31st March, the fifth iteration of the project will take place at Arts Catalyst in London in the form of a curatorial residency. This will feature research and public activities that share project ideas, build the community of practice, and expand the international research group. The residency will feature an exhibition of contemporary artworks that expand and question the ways in which time as a medium shapes our perception, the structure of societies, and the vastness of the physical world. The residency at Arts Catalyst builds on project collaborations with OzGrav at the University of Western Australia in Perth (2019), the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) in Liverpool UK (2018), and Casula Powerhouse (2018) and Artspace in Sydney (2018).