ABSTRACT
The construction of radically different alternative futures is hardly possible without recognition of alternative histories, alternative timelines and alternative approaches to time itself. Drawing on a performance poem for a conference on the future, the author maps out queer approaches to temporality as a way of establishing the theoretical landscape most conducive to developing live sociological methods. She then briefly argues for the importance of both theories and practices that challenge and offer alternatives to 'capitalist time', before exploring some examples of live art practice utilising temporality in specific ways. The author provides some examples of live practice that engage thoughtfully with time and enable audiences to do the same, revisiting Graeme Miller's Track for the ways in which it 'frames' the present and 'what is' within that present rather than adding complexity and criticality. She considers the role of memory in Mette Edvardsen's Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine and Monica Ross's Acts of Memory.
