Time Will Tell

Are you ready to immerse yourself in the wonderful world of time? Sometimes it flies by, whilst at other moments it seems to take ages for things to end. Time is a difficult concept, how do you research it? How does one go looking for the biological clock, or where ‘time perception’ is in the body? To get an idea about how this research came about we turn to the famous work done by psychologist Gerard Heymans (1867-1930). He was the first psychologist in the Netherlands to use test subjects for scientific research and his experiments and instruments on time perception caused major breakthroughs in the field of psychology.

In this first edition of Collector's Items, we gather around one instrument from Heymans’ collection. Psychologist Hedderik van Rijn, chronobiologist Yifan Wang and philosopher and physicist Sean Gryb of the University of Groningen will shed their light on the questions such as what time means to them, and how it plays a role in their field of research. Hosts Valeria Cernei and Mariska de Bone will lead the conversation.

Organised by Studium Generale Groningen and the University Museum of Groningen.

Pay a visit to the University Museum - Time Will Tell
The University Museum Groningen houses a large part of Heymans’ scientific instruments. You can find some of them in the exhibition TIME WILL TELL. Pay a visit to the museum where you can explore how you experience time and join us at the Academy Building to share your thoughts about what you saw and learned.

Image: Detail of an object from Heyman's collection at the University Museum Groningen.

Unfortunately, we don't have a recording of this evening.