New Time (Before, there were stars) is a 24 hour sound loop built on contemporary audio recordings of sea clocks originally engineered and constructed by John Harrison in England between 1735 and 1759. These seaworthy clocks allowed for predictable global ocean navigation for the first time. The sounds of the original ticks and whirrs have been elaborated on by numerous folk through various means (whose generous contributions of time, energy and enthusiasm we gratefully acknowledge).

Gwen MacGregor and Lewis Nicholson have collaborated on a diverse body of work over the past 20 years, which has included the following: mudlarking for months on the river Thames in London collecting clay tobacco pipes and ancient dress pins; a kinetic/sound sculpture powered by minnows; an excavation of the historical debris that had collected between the floorboards in the Synagogue Na Palmovce in Prague; a multi-layered publication focused on a ‘curse lifting’ ceremony performed in Fernie, BC, in 1963; an intervention involving hundreds of reflective balloons in the Ex Teresa Art Actual in Mexico City; an inventory of forgetfulness in the form of a glow-in-the-dark room in Oakville Galleries; single and multi-channel durational videos shot at the same time every day; a collection of objects modified by mice; a book of disappearing things; a two channel stop frame video of the longest day and the shortest day in Dawson City, Yukon.