Completing Aganta Kairos: Capturing Metaphysical Time on the Seventh Continent

TL;DR

The paper describes an art project that celebrates neutrinos as cosmic messengers, fostering a global community through performances, installations, and diverse cultural interpretations of our origins.

Contribution

It introduces a multidisciplinary art project linking science and culture by commemorating neutrinos and creating a global community through performances and exhibitions.

Findings

Plaque installed at South Pole IceCube Laboratory in 2020

Diverse cultural approaches to understanding origins showcased

Global sites linked to ongoing neutrino experiments

Abstract

We present an overview of the art project Aganta Kairos (To Fish the Metaphysical Time). This project celebrates the neutrino, the ghost particle, which scientists consider a cosmic messenger and the artist regards as a link between people who care about their relationship to the cosmos and question their origins. The artwork is based on a performance of celebration and seeks to build a human community that encompasses different knowledge domains and interpretations of the universe. This intersection of knowledge is realized during the performance of placing a plaque, held with witnesses, and during subsequent exhibitions. Images, sounds, videos, and sculpture testify to the diversity of approaches to questioning our origins, ranging from traditional western science to ancient shamanism. The sites were selected for their global coverage and, for the South Pole, Mediterranean, and Lake Baikal, their connection to ongoing neutrino experiments. In December 2020, a plaque was installed at the South Pole IceCube Laboratory, the seventh and final site. We provide examples of images and links to additional images and videos.