The Intuition of Time Between Science and Art History in the Early Twentieth Century

Abstract

The ArgumentThis article compares the corresponding effects in science and art of a change in the intuition of time at the beginning of this century. McTaggart's distinction between linear time and tense time is applied to the question of whether linear perspective requires a notion of time as succession. It is argued that the problem of self-representation is a basic problem for this kind of uniform space-time because of the contradiction between this model's need for a privileged point of view and its simultaneous denial of such a possibility.

The Time Game

“…The psychology and sociology of time have not been linked to the mainstream of their disciplines. However, in parallel with an increased sensitivity to 'time', recently illustrated by the 'millennium craze' (Charbeneau, 1998), a renewed interest in the 'time topic' can also be observed in the art world (Pochat, 1999;Motzkin, 1997). The idea of an 'acceleration of the pace of life' or 'time press' in societies and its impact on social support, health behaviour and economic processes have attracted the attention of psychoanalysts (Colarusso, 1998), social scientists (Levine, 1997;Gleick, 1999;Robinson and Godbey, 1997;Motzkin, 1997) and popular writers in particular (e.g.…”