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• 1 2021-03-02T17:00:46-08:00 Hyperobjects 16 A scientific concept plain 2021-04-20T21:20:16-07:00 The hyperobject was proposed by Timothy Morton in his 2013 book Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology After the End of the World. The concept is intrinsically linked to what Morton refers to as the "ecological crisis", and has emerged in an endeavour to classify enormous non-human entities that are beyond human comprehension and thus demand reconceptualisation. Hyperobjects cannot be localised to any one place as they rebel against normal interactions with time and space. Their enormity is not mere physical size but rather a reflection of their great impact, and thus events such as climate change accrue the status of hyperobject. 
  
  See this article by Alex Blasdel about Timothy Morton's proposals (2017) 'A Reckoning for our Species': the Philosopher Prophet of the Anthropocene
  
  And Heide Estes' chapter in Anglo Saxon Literary Landscapes (2017) Objects and Hyperobjects
  
  Pismis 24
  This is truly a hyperobject: something embodying a size and power that numbs the human mind. Though these foreign stars are unfathomably distant from our little planet and the lives we have built upon it, they are not irrelevant. The same forces that are at work in other galaxies are at work here. The sheer complexity and unknowability of the universe demands a reassessment of our thinking as it exposes the blinkered nature of personal, international and even global points of view. A universal perspective is required to begin to contemplate sights like these. 
  
  Wolf Volcano
  As I think of objects that are too large for us to grasp, I think of volcanoes. They are big, certainly, but it is the scope of their impact that truly makes me feel small. They have shaped the air we breath, flavoured the soil which feeds us, and moulded the very foundations of our earth. In this image, however, I am not drawn to the hyberobject but the bird that floats above it. I want to see as it sees, feel as it feels. I don't know why but I know that if I borrow its eyes I will be able to see through the smoke and the clouds to discover a truth that would otherwise be hidden. 
  
  The Butterflies 
  This artwork is from Shaun Tan's Tales From the Inner City and it depicts a fictional hyperobject: the movement of a swarm of innumerable butterflies promising transformation for the humans below. I have heard that the collective for butterflies is a 'flutter'. Here the flutter has become a flurry, a whirl of energy, colour and dancing, hypnotic light. It transcends the gathered crowd, hovering just above their reach. If a universal perspective is required to appreciate the majesty of the skies, this demands a smaller scale. Just as the volcano was best seen by the bird, I suspect this phenomenon is also best viewed by non-human eyes. I imagine the viewpoint of a single butterfly within the flutter, one insect amongst millions. What does it see in the raised human faces? What can it glimpse of their souls? This perspective is multiplied a hundredfold; it is voiced by thousands of beating wings. The insectostance's scope is humbling, but its true power lies in the insight of the individual, in the details plucked out by tiny eyes.