Wine’s time: duration, attunement, and diffraction

Abstract

Time, if addressed through non-linear and speculative perspectives concerned by aesthetics and aesthetic objects, is a promising space to develop a fresh approach to perception. That is, that the emergence of perception is embedded in material relations. Here, we take the scenario of two people sharing a glass of red wine to demonstrate how the concatenation of material events sets the rhythm that creates the sensation of time passing. In doing so, we aim to explore what processes and events within the sharing of wine partake in the perception of time and allow the sensation of time passing be a shared experience. We begin with the notion of “Duration” proposed by Henri Bergson as a philosophical framework to explore the material bases of the process of perception, specifically the concrete perception of time passing. Then, to point out the possibilities of an empirical analysis concerned with multiple scales of reality, we turn to advances in affect studies and new materialism. Specifically, we draw on the notion of “diffraction” as proposed by Karen Barad to explore cross-modal interchanges of properties at the quantum scale, and the idea of “attunement” inspired by the work of developmental psychologist Daniel Stern to address the scale of organic social interaction.