A View from Nowhere

Death and the Astronaut

Bluemel, Phyllida (2025) A View from Nowhere. In: Haunted Modernities, Present Pasts and Spectral Futures, July 16-18 2025, Falmouth University. (Unpublished)

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Abstract / Summary

This paper brings Tom Moynihan’s collected “visualisations of human extinction” [another panel paper] into conversation with ongoing Illustration research into the history of cosmic and ‘katascopic’ views, and the use of visual scale and perspectival space in environmental rhetoric. From the Hereford Mappa Mundi’s all-encompassing depiction of mortal time and space, to 1968’s Earthrise photograph; ‘whole earth’ images carry implications about the cosmic locations of meaning, value and responsibility. Many visualisations of extinction adopt this cosmic, extraterrestrial, perspective. After all, an image comprehensively depicting the denouement of a finite species must fit the species into the frame. Sometimes this is done through visual synecdoche. A ‘last man’ or ‘last couple’ stand in for us all. But in many cases extinction is represented as global cataclysm: as exploded, abandoned, frozen or flaming planets, with no humans present in the image. These secular images of extinction adopt perspectives that are theoretically positioned outside ‘meaning itself’ (Moynihan, in X-Risk, 2020) – they are views from nowhere. However they remain haunted by a perceiving subject. Who or what is watching our demise? What does the composition of these images: their use of scale, framing, and perspective, tell us?

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects:	Art History & Theory Creative Art & Design > Illustration & Drawing History, Geography & Environment Philosophy & Psychology
Department:	Falmouth School of Art
Depositing User:	Phyllida Bluemel
Date Deposited:	10 Jun 2026 08:50
Last Modified:	10 Jun 2026 08:50
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/6492

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