What is Deep Time Lab?

Throughout the Spring 2019 semester, artist in residence Nina Elder is engaging UNM students in a collective, creative, and interdisciplinary research project that explores how we situate ourselves within time. The ideas presented in this space orient participants and visitors to consider Earth’s new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene. Defined by human impact, urgency, and unprecedented change, the Anthropocene reveals that there is not a single, predictable future and that history is a story that can be retold and revised. As UNM students explore deep time with Nina Elder, new connections between past, present, and potential futures are made. Time is presented here as a language, a measure, an art medium, a social context, a scientific principle, a spiritual space, and a cultural expression.

Deep Time Lab is an experiment in creative arts research and art museum education. Students from various areas across campus including Art & Ecology, Studio Art, The Honors College, Architecture and Planning, Sustainability Studies, and Chicana/Chicano Studies are participating in this project and creating new work. We invite you to re-visit the space throughout the semester and see what new expressions of deep time have emerged.