So Hyper

Hyperobject is something so big that you can only see a tiny piece of it at a time.  It is impossible to understand the whole of it.  The best 3 examples are race, class, and global warming.  The other element of a hyperobject is time.  A linear context is required to try to understand a hyperobject; this thing exists because of what has happened over a period of time.  It has existed before and it will continue after. 

 The term has been around since the 60s, in which it means non-dimensional, non-local, object.  Wiki says Morton was inspired to use the name because of Bjork’s Hyperballad.  Hyperballad is a story about someone who wakes up before their lover, walks to the edge of a cliff to throw things off and images throwing themselves off, wondering what it would sound like, but then returning home happy.  Based on Morton’s morbid view on the current state and near future of mankind and the Earth, this may be something he relates to.

I use paper/wood/trees as a hyper object.  In my collages, old and new paper is glued to wood.  I use the back of 100 year old pictures, the pages from a 100 year old book, construction paper from the 80s, and Bristol Vellum from Michaels.  In Zimbabwe I saw many Baobab trees which some are estimated to be around 2000 years old, 100 feet tall, and a diameter of 30 feet.  Many of these trees have died in the last 15 years, including the Panke Baobab tree, which was 2450 years old and died in 2011.  Many think it is because of drought and warmer temperatures.  The oldest baobab is 6000 years old in South Africa.

Morton’s object-oriented ontology puts equal emphasis on all living creatures.  In architectural terms he refers to the TARDIS from the show Doctor Who, which I’ve never seen more than 5 minutes because it seems unwatchable but I do love the subject matter.  Inside every architectural object is Time and Relative Dimensions in Space.  When entering a space, it may seem different (even slightly) than perceived from the outside.  Time is also relative inside as it can go backwards and forwards.

I have to refer back to Synecdoche, New York for this one.  He creates a full scale set of New York, inside of New York, and inside that New York there is a set that is a full sized New York.  Time is also on a mudslide of confusion in this movie.  In the first scene, during one breakfast, time stretched 6 months or so, using clues from the TV, expiration dates, a newspaper, the radio, and conversations.  Also, the ending is built into the beginning in many ways making the film itself a haunted architecture.