Time: Physics, Film, History

Henri Poincaré's and Albert Einstein's reformulation of simultaneity was long seen as a development from imaginative thought experiments. But the all-too-material and the most abstract notions of time cross in essential ways (Swiss Patent Office, Paris Bureau of Longitude). Galison explores this intersection in collaboration with the artist William Kentridge (“The Refusal of Time,” 2012), pushing history, physics, and philosophy into a more associative-imaginative register.Henri PoincaréFrom there, Galison turns to the 10,000 year struggle to contain radioactive materials—a duration twice recorded in human history—and finally to the time of black holes, and the image of the photon ring.