tempocorporeal malfunctions

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I constantly look at the clock and I am constantly late.

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In his 2014 article for Performance Research, scholar Branislav Jakovljević dubs phenomena of untimeliness, belatedness, hyperactivity or slowness as “temporal maladjustments”. They result from abstract time’s (Jakovljević derives this term from modern clock time) incomplete conquest of “an individual’s inner experience of duration.” (Jakovljević, 2014, 6). In his argument, the writer resorts to the binary of measured time and inner time. This distinction foregrounds the maladjusted individual and presupposes a natural and pre-existing sense of time in humans.

Michelle Hlubinka recognizes that she “entered a society not just of timekeepers, but time-managers” (Hlubinka, 2007, 79) when she received her first wristwatch at the age of four. It seems that humans are introduced to time and its management as they grow up to become members of society. This implies that there is no a priori sense of time.

When I was a baby, I cried for milk whenever I was hungry. My body noticed a change-from not being hungry to being hungry-and I cried. I could not tell whether it was time for milk. I was not aware of time. Again, I cried because I was hungry. My mother, on the other hand, used technologies of temporality, with which she was acquainted, to organize her day and keep me alive (at the time she was a working, housekeeping mom of two). She observed how often I got hungry and deduced that she needs to breastfeed me every four hours in average.

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Temporal maladjustments are rather tempocorporeal malfunctions. Humans and technologies of temporality are in an interdependent “symbiotic relationship” (Clark, 2003, 24). This means that a malfunctioning part affects all parties of the relationship. When technologies break down we are reminded of their existence (Latour, 1999, 183). Taking this a step further, within the symbiosis the failure of one part indicates the existence and the failure of all other parts. For example, my lap top crashes and its screen turns black. I need to fix it. I, also, need to think of alternative ways of writing my essay, skyping with my mom and watching a movie without my laptop. Vice versa, being late is a malfunction that becomes noticeable on the individual and it indicates the existence and the breakdown of technologies of temporality. Tempocorporeal malfunctions recognize that the failure happens within the symbiotic relationship.

When a relationship functions poorly, I can

break up with temporality

fight constantly and become stressed

pause, listen and we can negotiate .

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