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Micro-Landscapes of the Anthropocene

Suzanne B 2

Through the concept of “deep time” and its relation to fossils as proposed in the Extinctions photo essay, it is true that there is a prehistoric world that humans are still in the process of learning more about, it is through that learning of fossils, and old things that we understand with a ‘antroprocentristic’ lens of understanding.

What can be done with this problem? How can change the damaging way nature is perceived through the problematic human lens? Through literature? By looking at scientific concepts such as New Materialism and can we mesh our world to the natural world with harmony?

This page is referenced by:

Extinctions: Photo Essay A photographic exploration of the meaning and impermanence of death and extinction
Butterfly Effect
The butterfly is a symbol of the inherent chaos of our world , and the constant flux of time. A butterfly can flap its wings and cause a tsunami on the other side of the world. The death of a butterfly could change the course of history forever, but how would we ever know?

Ammonite
Fossils are representative of deep time. This ammonite draws us down and down, a descending staircase into a prehistoric world humans are incapable of understanding.

Bison Skulls
A monument to death. Too many skulls to properly comprehend the slaughter that took place show how close we came to exterminating yet another species, and the tenacity of life and it's ability to recover from even human-induced disaster.

Dead Thylacine
Here, however, a single dead animal shows the death of an entire species. A hunter proudly displays his trophy , and in this image we can see the last of an entire family of unique creatures.

Chaos Theory
But fossils, death, extinction, these are all dependent on our understanding of time as linear, as inflexible, as unchanging. But the world is chaos and existence isn't limited to the three dimensions humans are capable of understanding. To presume so would be the height of human arrogance. The past and future influence the present, and death and extinction are merely the result of our limited viewpoint.