Dirk Ippen Lecture

In the Mean-Time

In this lecture, Claudia Rankine presents a theory of what she calls “The Mean-time” in art – or, the “concurrent experience inside the everyday.” She inquires, what are the consequences of being made to experience time as both distinct and simultaneous? How is a life affected by one minute, five minutes, or a symbolic eight minutes and forty-six seconds—the amount of time police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck? Rankine examines these and other questions regarding the perception of time, referencing the work of visual artist Jennifer Packer, artist and filmmaker Titus Kaphar, filmmaker Isadora Knutsen, cultural theorist Homi K. Bhabha, and others, to illustrate the concept of “The Mean-time” in art.