Today, an Opening Reception for Since the Epoch will be held from Boston Cyberarts Gallery from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm.

Since the Epoch is an exhibition of work from students in the Digital + Media graduate program at the Rhode Island School of Design.

The title of the exhibition is a reference to Unix time, a widely used computer timekeeping system based on counting the seconds passed since the advent of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Often termed the epoch, Thursday January 1, 1970 remains a technical and metaphorical crossing point—marking a change in how our society measures, and perhaps ultimately experiences, the passage of time.

While the work in this exhibition ranges a wide variety of media—from performance to advanced CGI—a reoccurring theme is the confrontation and exploration of time as it relates to digital systems.

In Xibaba, by Joseph Winograd, the now ubiquitous timeline of the GIF is exploded into three dimensions. A colorful image sequence by the artist is transformed into a physical animation, a geometric structure built of lenticular prints slowly spinning at eye level.

Similarly, in Kristen Shea’s Poetic Simulations, the tensions between the digital and temporal realms are exploited. Short loops of timeless CGI worlds are extended into physical space through projection onto sculptural counterparts. Her video poems, comprised of frames per second, briefly interact with the longer timeframe of cement, wood and metal.

Since the Epoch will be on view at the Boston Cyberarts Gallery this weekend only, on Friday March 10, Saturday March 11, and Sunday March 12, from 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm.