NONHUMAN

The nonhuman moves away from hierarchy, dissolving the separation between systems and decenters the human. Everything is interconnected and enmeshed together. The nonhuman explores new ways of “living with” that makes room for different worlds to exist and acknowledges the interdependence of humans, environments, systems, and other entities. The dissolution of boundaries and revealing of our enmeshment moves beyond the modernist mindset of humans being separate from the greater world and the division between nature and culture. We are inseparable from the environment. Objects don’t remain in place, boundaries (national, ownership, etc.) are made up. Things are always moving and flowing–affecting and being affected by each other. Humans don’t just act upon nature, nature is constantly acting back upon us, we can’t be separated from it. Discarding hierarchy and embracing a flat ontology means all different sorts of objects at various scales are on equal ontological footing, entangled together in different ways. This thinking leads to the idea of a pluriverse, where different entities can exist together and humans can recognize ourselves as material beings, seeing the interconnectedness among systems, entities, and each other. Everything equally exists even though the existence’s operate differently and come in varied forms. Removing rigid structures and anthropocentric ways of viewing the world will create an awareness of what is happening underneath–all the hidden systems working that create current societies and situations. We see the networks of objects that sustain us, see how things work and how we can find new ways of existing. Pondering the nonhuman leads to thinking about our place in the world and the connection and interdependence we have with other entities. Everything is always flowing and reacting toeach other and we cannot separate ourselves from the environment and ecosystems–they are within us and we are in them. This way of thinking and these ideas are often hidden or difficult to talk and think about because of Modernist ideology and the dominance of anthropocentric viewpoints.

REFERENCES

Ignacio Valero, “EcoDomics” 
Levi Bryant, “A World is Ending” 
N. Katherine Hayles, “Novel Corona: Posthuman Virus” 
Levi Bryant, “Flat Ontology, Questions, and Assemblages” 
Levi Bryant, “Do Artifacts Have Politics?” 
Levi Bryant, “Flat Ontology/Flat Ethics” 
Julia Kuznetski, “Transcorporeality: An Interview with Stacy Alaimo”
Levi Bryant, Nick Srnicek and Graham Harman, “The Speculative Turn: Continental Materialism and Realism”