In T for Time: Timepieces, Ho Tzu Nyen presents various ‘images of time' – from the candle and the river to the stopwatch and the clock. Yet while these representations may seem familiar, they do not necessarily help us grasp the true ‘nature’ of time.

We reflect on time without truly knowing what kind of ‘thing’ we are dealing with. Is it a substance, a physical entity, an illusion, a product of consciousness or a cultural construct?

Everyone has their own intuitions and theories, and thus consensus remains elusive. One says time stops when nothing changes; another claims it keeps flowing even when nothing seems to happen. Some believe it exists only in our minds; others insist it is speeding up.

Time is ultimately far from being a universal notion, and talking about it is not the same as understanding what it really is.

So, what does time really look like? Can language, physicists, philosophers, artists define it for us? This talk will explore these various perspectives, probing the different ways in which we attempt to articulate the notion of time.

Biography:

Étienne Klein is a philosopher of science and Director of Research at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), where he leads the Laboratory for Research on the Sciences of Matter. A member of the French Academy of Technologies, he is known for his work on the concept of time and other subjects at the crossroads of physics and philosophy. He is a professor at CentraleSupélec and hosts the weekly programme La conversation scientifique on France Culture. His recent publications include Transports physiques (Gallimard, 2025), L’éternité béante (Futuropolis, 2024), and Courts-circuits (Gallimard, 2023).