Time Machine

Time is money.

The durational performance Time Machine by Studio Julian Hetzel questions the logic of productivity and efficiency with a performative that makes every second count.

The fear that ChatGPT and other AI technologies will take over our jobs is based on the belief that the labour of machines is cheaper than that of people, making it cost-efficient. But is that really the case? The time of the people who build and maintain machines is often more costly than low-paid human labour. Jobs such as click workers, crowd workers or the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), show that sometimes it pays off to let people perform the tasks of machines.

Time Machine takes this principle and translates it into the technology of time itself, namely the clock. Time Machine outsources the task of clocking: in the 6-hour performance, the time is spoken live every few seconds by a speaking clock.

This service actually really exists: despite our smartphones, every month approximately 17,000 people call the telephone line (0900-8002) to hear the time.

Time Machine has been created as part of The Economy of Waiting (2014) and is now, 10 years after the premiere, performed again by the original cast.

As time goes by…