Hyperobject
A hyperobject is a concept introduced by philosopher Timothy Morton to describe entities that are:
- Massively distributed in time and space: They transcend spatiotemporal specificity
- Too vast to fully perceive: Humans can only observe their "footprints" or impacts on other objects
- Formed by relations between multiple objects: They are inherently interobjective.
Examples of hyperobjects include:
- Global warming
- Styrofoam
- Radioactive plutonium
- Oil spills
- Capitalism
- The solar system
Hyperobjects challenge our traditional ways of thinking about reality and our place in the world. They are so massive and complex that they "humiliate our cognitive powers," often leading to disorientation, denial, or polarization .
Social dreaming[edit | edit source]
Social dreaming, is a tool for collective exploration of dreams and their meanings, and can relate to the concept of hyperobjects in several ways.
The social dreaming matrix format is designed to reach a cultural unconscious, since it is not well-represented in typical discourse. It uses a psychoanalytically-informed psychosocial approach. It can be expanded with ideas from psychoanalysis, social psychology, and eco-philosophy looking at climate change as an hiperobject. This interdisciplinary approach may lead to more comprehensive ways of engaging with complex global issues.
By connecting social dreaming with the concept of hyperobjects, it may be possible to gain new insights into complex, large-scale phenomena like climate change. This integration could potentially offer a new dimension to understanding and addressing such issues.
I dreamt all night and I kept waking up trying to hold on to the dreams.
Introducing artworks into the Social Dreaming event, and the experience of a containing space among like-minded others, enabled multiply-condensed imagery, which under normal circumstances cannot be brought to thought.
These conditions helped to make sense of the awful experience of a hyperobject that is interconnectedly everywhere, outscaling human capacity to know, that science cannot hold, that sticks to everything, yet is non-local to wake up to a dream, to see the thing that terrifies and disturb us as a part of ourselves to transform it and use it wisely.