www.bennettandmcdermott.com

Town Time is a playful and contemplative participatory art project that invites visitors like you, to momentarily uncouple from the constant motion of measured time and question the reasons behind society’s need for us to be cooperative and compliant in its precisely organised structures.

The project is inspired by an archive in the Museum in the Park that records how in 1858 Stroud was one of the last towns in the country to switch from ‘town time’ to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) following the arrival of the railways. Prior to this standardisation of time, each town or city was slightly out of step with each other and GMT, basing it’s time on the rising and setting of the sun.

Site Festival visitors are invited to select an activity from a ‘menu’ of options to do with the artists for nine minutes, the amount of time that was ‘lost’ when Stroud switched from town time to GMT 163 years ago.

The focus of Bennett & McDermott’s collaborative art practice is to produce contemporary art that is accessible, engaging, and promotes the values of generosity, community and creativity. Bennett & McDermott are based in Stroud, Gloucestershire where they live with their two young daughters.