Angus McCullough: Coincidence Control
At noon on November 18, 1883, the American and Canadian railroads implemented four continental time zones—Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific—as a means of synchronizing time. Previously each town and city had maintained its own individualized system of time based on the angle of the sun. Standardized Railway Time created a conformity of timekeeping across towns and regions in order to allow corporations greater control over the shipping of their goods.
Angus McCullough’s site-specific installation Coincidence Control invites viewers to reimagine their relationship with time, to unplug and reflect. Housed in the ticket office of Brattleboro’s former Union Station, Coincidence Control presents an alternative to standardized time through the mediums of video, sound art, artist books, drawings, and an interactive time capsule that visitors are welcome to enter.
— Jonathan Gitelson, Curator
“Time” is a word for movement we cannot understand, and is often used to disguise complicated structures that measure and control industrial trade. Coincidence Control transforms Union Station’s former ticket office into a place for reconnecting with our intuitive and embodied cycles of time. By actively investigating the methodologies of temporal control, we can better understand how our human clocks diverge from those rhythms, and by offering spaces for exploring stillness and sensitivity, perhaps we can enhance awareness of our unique patterns. With that hope in mind, the space will exhibit artwork and will also facilitate explorations away from the structures and institutions that measure and control us.
Because time synchronization is woven into so many parts of our lives, the exhibit uses a variety of modes to help with your escape and homecoming: dense and surprising books, communal sound-making, “departure schedules,” a small private space, historical and architectural discussion, and maps to guide voyages to inner landscapes. Consider it a platform from which to lose yourself—to “spend” time and thereby reclaim it.
— Angus McCullough
RELATED RESOURCES
RELATED EVENTS
June 22, Saturday, 5:30 p.m. – Opening of six new exhibits
July 11, Thursday, 5-7 p.m. – SoundMind: A Workshop in Aural Attention and Participatory Soundmaking
July 20, Saturday, 3 p.m. – Unpacking the Station
August 10 & September 21, Saturdays, 2–4 p.m. – Workshop(s): Dream Journals
