Physical Time

On Time
Set against Sydney Observatory’s timeless backdrop, On Time is a Powerhouse series exploring the philosophy of time. Across four conversations journalist Rachael Hocking engages with leading thinkers to examine how time governs our world by measuring moments, defining cycles and shaping our deepest sense of self.
‘The thing that has always struck me is how obsessed we are with time. As a species, some of the very earliest thought about the world that we've done, whether it's in western tradition, eastern tradition, indigenous traditions, is thinking about time in some way, shape or form.’
Physical Time
Physics informs and challenges our deepest assumptions about time, shaping principles of quantum mechanics and the structure of the cosmos. While some argue time is an essential part of the physical world, others suggest it may not exist at all. In this conversation on Physical Time Professor Tamara Davis and Associate Professor Sam Baron trace the tension between the time we measure and the time we experience, attempting to reconcile both.
Featuring Speakers
‘Space and time as we experience them might be emergent from the collective behaviour of something else.’



Photography Commission
Photographer Kai Wasikowski was commissioned by Powerhouse to produce a series of portraits of the On Time program speakers and a photographic study of Sydney Observatory, situating these contemporary voices within a site shaped by science, timekeeping and colonial history.






About Photographer
Kai Wasikowski is an artist working across photography, video and sculpture, based on Gadigal Land / Sydney, Australia. His practice is informed by a familial connection to landscape photography and environmental conservation and critically examines how colonial ways of seeing shape ideas of land, resources, possession and belonging.



















