Bold Tendencies

We live in an age of wonderful science writing, and Carlo Rovelli’s The Order of Time, is an example of the very best. Time is something we think we know about instinctively; here he shows how profoundly strange it really is  

—  Philip Pullman, CBE

Bold Tendencies is proud to announce the finale to our 12th summer programme. The Order of Time is a new commission to artist and designer Es Devlin who has worked with the text written by theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli and the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch to realise a monumental act of mediated reading, a spectacular live audio-filmic experience specially imagined for the rooftop of the car park at sunset on the closing day of Bold Tendencies 2018.

Taking its inspiration from Carlo Rovelli’s bestselling book, The Order of Time will transform the Peckham Observatory designed by young British architects Cooke Fawcett from its modest structural sensibility to a dazzling site of scientific discovery.

The Order of Time will combine the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch with an ambitious installation that draws from the hypnotic quality of Rovelli’s own reflections on the strange nature of time, being and transformation and from the firefly, whose bioluminescent life begins, evolves and ends across the course of a single day. The Order of Time also considers ‘the science of reading’, the long, wide aspect ratio of the car park offering up an ideal site for this special project.

The Order of Time will take place at 7:15 pm. The award-winning Multi-Story Orchestra will perform Haydn’s London Symphony The Clock and Short Ride in a Fast Machine, John Adams’ five minute masterpiece for 70 players at 7.55 pm and Bold Tendencies will host Carlo Rovelli and Es Devlin for a discussion of The Order of Time at 8.45 pm in our Straw Auditorium. These events all require advance booking and have limited capacity. 

Copies of The Order of Time will be available onsite on the day for the special price of £5. The Order of Time at Bold Tendencies is supported by Allen Lane, Penguin Books and Selfridges and realised in partnership with PRG Projects, Pell Frischmann and Cooke Fawcett.  

About Es Devlin Artist and designer Es Devlin creates immersive filmic sculptures which are frequently conceived as environments for performance in opera, concerts, dance and theatre. Her recent solo exhibitions include EGG at the XI Gallery in New York 2018, MASK at Somerset House 2018, Mirrormaze at Copeland Park, Peckham 2016; The Singing Tree at the V&A 2017; Room 2022 at Miami Art Basel 2017 and PoemPortraits at the Serpentine Gallery 2017. Her stage sculptures include collaborations with Beyonce, Kanye West, U2, The Weeknd, Adele, The Royal Opera House, The National Theatre and the London and Rio Olympic Ceremonies. She is the winner of numerous awards including three Olivier Awards, the 2017 London Design Medal and a UAL fellowship. Devlin was made OBE in the Queen’s New Years Honours List 2015.

About Carlo Rovelli Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who has made significant contributions to the physics of space and time. He has worked in Italy and the US, and is currently directing the quantum gravity research group of the Centre de physique théorique in Marseille. His books Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Reality Is Not What It Seems and The Order of Time are international bestsellers translated into forty-one languages.

About The Order of Time (London: Penguin Books, 2018) Time is a mystery that does not cease to puzzle us. Philosophers, artists and poets have long explored its meaning while scientists have found that its structure is different from the simple intuition we have of it. From Boltzmann to quantum theory, from Einstein to loop quantum gravity, our understanding of time has been undergoing radical transformations. Time flows at a different speed in different places, the past and the future differ far less than we might think, and the very notion of the present evaporates in the vast universe. With his extraordinary charm and sense of wonder, bringing together science, art and philosophy, Carlo Rovelli unravels this mystery, inviting us to imagine a world where time is in us and we are not in time.