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When days are getting longer

When days are getting longer, brass, 20×10 cm, 2022, photos: Kunstraum Memphis/​Jakob Dietrich

The rotation of the earth on its axis defines our natural measure of time. But the earth’s rotation is subject to constant fluctuations due to a variety of influences and so the international atomic time and the solar time defined by the earth’s rotation gradually drift apart. In order to compensate this difference, a leap second is added at irregular intervals at the end of a year.
When days are getting longer captures this ephemeral, at first glance seemingly impossible momentum, questioning both the measurability and the systematization and normalization of the construct of time.