_{Chronotopia by Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett (2026). Commissioned for the G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation Art Prize (2026 winners). Agios Nikolaos, Crete, Greece.}

Chronotopia is a sight-responsive installation drawing from relationships between Crete and water, light, space, and time. The piece is comprised of four layers of optical lenses, wrapped around a chair in two arcing sails of light. From inside the installation, the lenses capture and focus distant vistas into domed micro-worlds, shifting in the wind. You can sit in the chair, observing your surroundings through the lenses.

Each optical surface amplifies the environment, like shivering droplets of water or the fractal vision of an insect. The blue horizon line is separated into a discontinuous timeline, broken into multiple possibilities uniting in the eye of the observer.

This fragmenting of the horizon line becomes an analogy for the deconstruction of linear time. As the smooth line of the Mediterranean Sea breaks into pieces, so too does our perception of experiential time.

From outside the installation, the body of the viewer sitting inside is seen through a layer of lenses, becoming a pixelated presence, an abstracted ghost – part of the new chronology proposed by the artwork in conversation with time + place.

This piece invites an active participation as visitors shift from viewer to subject, in communion with the environment of Agios Nikolaos, Crete. Chronotopia is entwined with vision as a conceptual philosophy, a radical act of witnessing, and a point of connection between people and places over time.

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_{Thanks to the G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation (especially Yota, Dafni, and Sotirios) for commissioning this piece, the Selection Committee for inviting us out of over 400 applicants, Andreas from Aluminum & Iron Creations for fabricating the steel structure, Minos Palace Resort for kindness and hospitality, the engineering and electrical teams for supporting the artwork, and the Mamidakis Family (especially Gina and George) for welcoming us so graciously.}

_{Chronotopia is located on the grounds of Minos Palace Resort, and is open to the public whether or not you’re staying at the hotel.}

_{The piece is built from 1500 prescription eyeglass lenses, sourced secondhand from the Canadian Lions Eyeglass Recycling Centre. The lenses are distance corrective lenses and cannot start a fire.}