I finally sit down with Niko Nordström, to talk about his solo performance This Is Why I'm Late, in The Theatre Academy in Helsinki. We talk through his semi-fictionalised self-portrait of monologues about clocks, dreams and the struggles between thought and time, all the while dipping into the history of structured time; the societal needs for, and science behind, these structures. Niko explains how the framework of his performance is inspired by experiences in his immediate life, and how he embodies the act of storytelling from various positions, via different characters and as writer/actor. We talk about time as collaborator, time as antagonist, time as a premise for planned out events, and time as an uncontrollable element of surprise. We discuss shared feelings of ambiguity towards the concept of lateness, and reflect on how internal perception of time does not always align with external expectations.

"We proclaim the environment we act in to be subjective to the core, and believe that it unravels itself differently to each individual...we strive to include the aspect of Time in the context of accessibility, which so far has primarily concerned itself with the dimensions of physical space...In a society that increasingly, constantly and actively demands, steals and feeds off our concentration, energy and Time through demands of activity...The more we sleep, the less we consume scarce resources...we deem the current neoliberal capitalist system that bases itself on endless economic (and other) growth to be both unsustainable, illusionary and naïve in its core."

- excerpts from The Late Party's Explanatory Party Program

This episode contains sound bites from the performance This Is Why I'm Late, recorded as video by Willjam Tigerstedt, ripped and edited by me.

Niko's Instagram

The Theatre Academy Helsinki's website

The Theatre Academy Helsinki's Facebook page

Artist at Work by Bojana Kunst

Momo by Michael Ende

I could not find the exact article I mention, but I found a few other interesting reads:

Emotions & Time

Language & Time

Neuroscience & Time

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