In the final part of his triptych, Jonathan Martineau questions collective presence and its connection with time.

The more we try to control time, the more it controls us.

Here is the second text of Jonathan Martineau’s triptych.

Jonathan Martineau teaches at Concordia University. His work explores the history of ideas, technology, political economy, and social time. Invited to take part in our second conversation on presence, he extends his reflections here through a triptych that unfolds presence like a prism.

Here is the first of his three texts:

“All my memories bind and release me, tie me down and set me free, enter and exit my body, scatter me across time and scatter time within me, projecting me into a web of meaning that illuminates my presence in the world.”