The past in the present: Understanding David Claerbout’s temporal aesthetics

Abstract

David Claerbout’s recent video and photographic works generate a distinct temporal aesthetic. In particular, these works experiment with time by situating the historical past not as a discrete moment in time, but rather as an actively engaged part of the present moment. Through the use of digital technologies Claerbout re-presents, experiments with, and opens up time as non-linear and complex, in effect producing a new experience of temporality through a mediation of the past. Using Gilles Deleuze’s concepts of time, informed by Michel Serres’ and Roland Barthes’ work on photography, I explore a theory of time through these artworks in which the past is understood as transpiring within the present, attempting to understand Deleuze’s temporal concepts aesthetically, not just philosophically.