Trouble is an interesting word. It derives from a thirteenth-century French verb meaning “to stir up,” “to make cloudy,” “to disturb.” We – all of us on Terra – live in disturbing times, mixed-up times, troubling and turbid times. The task is to become capable, with each other in all of our bumptious kinds, of response.
Donna Haraway, Embracing the Trouble, 2016
Meet Antonia
She is an ant from the future, latin name Gigantiops oculus tertius. She is the size of a rat. Her exoskeleton has large pores to help her ingest larger amounts of Oxygen. Towards the back of her head is a third eye. Many ant species have small extra eyes on the tops of their heads, but our future ant has just one, and it is larger. What could it be for?
A short film about life after humans are gone.
ANThropocene: embracing trouble
Single channel stop-motion animation, 2020
This is a snapshot of time in the distant future. The climate has stabilised and cooled, and there is less Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This has led to some evolutionary adaptations. The ant of the future is much larger due to increased levels of oxygen. It has also developed a third eye – what could this be used for? Although humans are gone, artificial intelligence has survived. Remnants of plastic remain.
The time we are living through now, the Anthropocene, is named because it has been a human-centred era when we have viewed nature as a separate entity from ourselves. Ants have existed roughly in their present form for around 100 million years. Homo sapiens has only been around for approximately 250,000 years. Of that time, the Anthropocene only covers around the past 11,000 years. In contemplating this speculative scenario that leaves humans out, could we be stirred to feel renewed responsibility for the present and embrace the trouble?
Watch it here (4 minutes)
Antonia's view
A test shot of Antonia in the grass in my back yard.
Something fell ...
This is delicious! But too big not to share with you ...
An abandoned nuclear power plant in the valley of the Blue Mountains
Broken down radars on a high ridge in the Blue Mountains
Working on the scientific diagram of the post-human ant in an entomology lab class with students at UNSW BEES (University of New South Wales, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences)
Presenting my work in progress, 'ANThropocene: embracing trouble' to students at UNSW BEES (University of New South Wales, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences)
Chatting with entomology students during my lab talk at UNSW BEES (University of New South Wales, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences)
This post-human ant, Oculus tertius giganticus, is the size of a rat with enlarged pores to suck up all the extra Oxygen in the atmosphere. She has also developed a third eye.