Thomas Heatherwick designed an ambitious piece to signify the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, UK. Called B of the Bang it referred to the sprinter Linford Christie’s quote about leaving the starting blocks on the “B of the Bang”. The piece had an unintended fate (it started falling apart and had to be irrevocably dismantled), but refers to the heightened awareness of immediacy at the competitive start.
Except, we take in some 11 million pieces of information per second through our senses, yet are consciously aware of only around 40 of these. We actually live on the w of noW, it takes around 80 milliseconds for the non-conscious brain to synthesise our experience.
We live in the past.
alan thomas 