Just as liquids conform to the vessel that contains them, time is shaped by the social, technological, and political forces of its era. The printers in this work continuously print five distinct definitions of temporal units: from the precision of the contemporary second to the rhythm described in a Sanskrit treatise on astronomy, the medieval monastic "moment," and the nanocentury devised by IBM at the dawn of the computer age.

The redefinition of the second in the following years invites us to consider how we might define future units of time. Will abstract measures, such as the hexadecimal minute or similar proposals, remain relevant in a future where human presence on Earth, or human existence itself, cannot be assumed?