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A
Matter of Time
Time matters, explain organizing
fellows of the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute’s
long-term project though
we are not always aware of its impacts and importance.
 The
Kahn project, organized by Bosiljka Glumac, associate professor
of geosciences, and Richard Lim, professor of history, involved
12 faculty fellows and seven student fellows last year in
exploring the effects on all things of time’s perpetual
passing, as well as the implications of temporality.
Time,
of course, cannot be held still, but the “Telling Time” project
will do its best to capture a moment of time in stasis when
the project culminates with the installation of a time capsule
representing the project. The capsule, a stainless steel
cylinder 12 inches wide by 12 inches deep and 20 inches long,
will be built into a wall being constructed as part of the
new reading room on the first floor of Neilson Library. The
installation will take place with a free, public ceremony
on Thursday, Aug. 19, at 1 p.m.
Project fellows began last
April collecting items for the capsule, including rock samples
, ancient coins and pottery shards used for dating demonstrations
during the project. Some student fellows wrote personal letters
to their future selves or to future Smith students for the
capsule. It will also include a list of the project fellows
and a group photo, as well as the project’s final report,
written by Glumac and Lim.
Among the time capsule's contents: a group photo of
the "Telling Time" fellows (click on image for enlarged
view). |
“Project fellows wanted to produce a tangible and enduring record of their
joint discussions, the input of visiting scholars, and the specific research
of individual fellows,” said Rick Fantasia, B. Richmond 1940 Professor of Sociology
and director of the Kahn Institute. “They decided that a good way to do that
would be to create a time capsule that would be sealed somewhere on campus,
and would carry a record of their work into the future.”
In 50 years, during reunion
weekend 2060, five of the student fellows from the Class
of 2010 plan to attend their 50th reunion and retrieve and
open the capsule, said Kara Noble, project and publicity
administrator at the Kahn Institute.
Staff members in the
Mortimer Rare Book Room and College Archives assisted with
preparing the time capsule materials for long-term preservation,
said Noble. The materials were then sent to Future Packaging
and Preservation, a company in Covina, California, which
packed and prepared the capsule, and will weld it shut before
returning it to Smith for installation.
The time capsule
is registered with the International Time Capsule Society,
an organization at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Ga.,
that promotes the study of time capsules. Documentation of
its installation and contents will be recorded in College
Archives.
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