Time with No Horizon

The View from Above as an Illustration of Eternity

Bluemel, Phyllida (2023) Time with No Horizon. In: Haunted Landscapes: Nature, Super-Nature, and Global Environments, 4-6 July 2023, Falmouth University. (Unpublished)

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Abstract / Summary

Our time concepts have an earthly topology. The past is behind us; memories buried or resurfacing; the future in the distance, around the corner, or beyond the horizon. This analogical mapping of time onto space is one of the ways in which we might experience a landscape as ‘haunted’. But where is time in the aerial view? Originating from the Cynics’ philosophical and ethical imperative to ‘rise above’ earthly concerns, katascopos names the contemplative-literary tradition of adopting a ‘view from above’. Within this tradition, classical and medieval depictions of the world as seen from above served to facilitate meditative escape from the temporal, and towards the divine.

Where the contemporary context of climate breakdown meets everyday encounters with views from above, I’m interested in the persistence of the ‘katascopic’ impulse as visual parallel to the conceptual separation of time and space in the cultural imagination. This paper takes an eco-critical approach to ‘the view from above’ in relation to the representation of time – drawing a line from medieval depictions of the earth through to Google maps, and ultimately considering a concept coined by Olga Torkarczuk – ‘ognosia’ – to consider the possibility of adopting a 'fractal'perspective.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects:	Geography & Environment > Climate Change Arts > Historical Arts > Illustration Philosophy & Psychology
Courses by Department:	The Falmouth School of Art > Illustration
Depositing User:	Phyllida Bluemel
Date Deposited:	15 Jul 2024 15:50
Last Modified:	15 Jul 2024 15:50
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/5624

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