Time is both a fluid dimension and an uncrossable partition. Whether it’s the many different customs that contradict the Gregorian calendar, or the scrambled and inconsistent breaking up of time zones all around the Earth, our radically opposed definitions of time influence how our societies think and interact. While some cultures rely on rigid schedules or almanacs to coordinate their livelihoods, others embrace the unpredictability of polychronic rhythms. The malleable nature of non-linear time, for example, has long influenced Indigenous storytelling—deeply embedded cultural knowledge that negates strict Western interpretation.

Throughout history, the class that has controlled the clocks has controlled the masses. Capitalist regimes have appropriated circadian rhythms to extract productivity, but who among us would argue that the 9-5 is perfect? One of the few universal truths of humankind is the certainty of death, yet each religion interprets it with contrasting timelines: from black-and-white afterlife narratives to the never-ending cycle of rebirth. How might citizens of distant territories sync their clocks to time zones prescribed by faraway capitals? How is the immigrant experience affected not only by geographical borders, but also the temporal boundaries that divide a people from their homeland? Even memory, the bedrock of our minds, is fluid and fickle when interrogated. How does its relativity influence the historical narratives we choose to regurgitate or eradicate?

Temporal Boyfriend wants to be taken time-traveling. We seek your stories that unstick us from time, your poems that melt the clocks off the walls, your essays that unspool memory before our very eyes. We crave artwork that shatters the hourglass, narratives that break us free from the traditional boundaries of genre, medium, and interpretation, leaving us to interrogate our yesterdays in contrast to our dreams of tomorrow. Temporal Boyfriend craves your non-linear delineations, your unreal realities. We want to know what makes your watch tick. So, rev up your DeLoreans, and take Temporal Boyfriend for a ride—speed us up or slow us down, turn us inside-out and upside-down. All we ask is that you leave our assumptions of reality firmly in the dust.