Now that geologists have proposed that the human species’ life on the planet will be discernible as a geological strata after humans have ceased to be, we can start to pose new problems for art. How might we imagine our world once we are no longer on the planet? What does the thought of the end of our own time and life entail for figurations of life. Stephen Jay Gould argued that a more nuanced ‘iconography of life’ was required in order to understand the non-progressive and inhuman nature of evolution. I would argue that we need a new ‘iconography of life’ to understand the non-progressive and inhuman nature of humanity.
Claire Colebrook is Professor of English at Penn State University. She has published books on poetry, European philosophy and literary theory. Her most recent book is William Blake and Digital Aesthetics.