Time Unhinged

Privileging the processes associated with artmaking over the product is commonly invoked in discussions surrounding best practices in art education. Ostensibly this is to suggest that the constructive value of artmaking is primarily revealed in the development of ideas and skills over time and it is within this development that learning and understanding occurs. However, while this is a frequent refrain in art educational practice, the function of time within the process is left largely unexamined, and its understanding is largely relegated to notions of chronology and progress. This article will examine in depth the complexity of time as it is conceived by philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the implications of this more nuanced understanding for a reconsideration of the effects of time on the artmaking process as it is revealed through a site-based student artwork. Rather than addressing the effects of time on our understanding, conceiving, and producing art, this paper will ask what effect does making have on our understanding of time.