Commune Birthing House
Date: Spring 2025
Instructor: Michael Meredith
Site: Kelmscott Manor, Cotswolds, UK.
Until the mid-19th century, towns relied on local time, set by the sun. It didn't matter that places at different longitudes kept different times. When railways were established, it was suddenly essential to have common time for scheduling and avoiding collisions.
In 1884, the International Meridian Conference was held in Washington DC, here the conference agreed to divide the world into 24-hour time zones based on the Greenwich meridian ('railway time'). Around this time, William Morris and his contemporaries sought with the Arts and Crafts movement to oppose industrialization, instead advocating for a socialist anarchism.
This Commune, growing in the garden of Morris' home Kelmscott Manor, rejects the 24 hour clock, the typical 9-5 workday, the commodification of labour, the notion of productivity.
Commune Birthing House
Date: Spring 2025
Instructor: Michael Meredith
Site: Kelmscott Manor, Cotswolds, UK.
Until the mid-19th century, towns relied on local time, set by the sun. It didn't matter that places at different longitudes kept different times. When railways were established, it was suddenly essential to have common time for scheduling and avoiding collisions.
In 1884, the International Meridian Conference was held in Washington DC, here the conference agreed to divide the world into 24-hour time zones based on the Greenwich meridian ('railway time'). Around this time, William Morris and his contemporaries sought with the Arts and Crafts movement to oppose industrialization, instead advocating for a socialist anarchism.
This Commune, growing in the garden of Morris' home Kelmscott Manor, rejects the 24 hour clock, the typical 9-5 workday, the commodification of labour, the notion of productivity.
