Lilliputian Arctic Deviation is a work for small orchestra inspired by average snow and ice extent in the Northern Hemisphere over four decades. Something so large as forty years of snow and ice coverage can be interpreted as what Timothy Morton calls a hyperobject, an entity so vast in space and time that we as human beings cannot experience it within our limited senses and lifespans. For example, we can’t experience 150 years of global warming directly, but we can conceptualize it as an idea, or observe it as a graph. Like a graph, Lilliputian Arctic Deviation is an attempt to experience a hyperobject, while also allowing the composer free rein to creatively interpret and comment on the hyperobject. The Rutgers University Global Snow Lab records weekly and monthly snow extent averages for the Northern Hemisphere from 1967 until the present day. Lilliputian Arctic Deviation focuses on the summer yearly averages. Certain characteristics of the data, when graphed, show patterns that have both scientific and, after translation through algorithmic processes, musical significance. These characteristics are: 1. A significant decline in average snow extent from 1967 to the present; and 2. A transition from drastic yearly differences in the late 1960s through early 1990s to more consistent and predictable values in the late 1990s to 2015. Lilliputian Arctic Deviation proceeds in chronological order, starting with 1967 and ending with 2015. The density of the musical texture reflects the shape of the graph. Higher yearly averages involve more instruments sounding simultaneously, and lower yearly averages involve fewer instruments. Similar yearly average data values are reflected through shared musical materials; the range under which data points are located have similar characteristics. I group the data into eight regions: 3–3.9, 4–4.9,…10–10.9. Data points falling within a similar region share motivic, melodic, harmonic, and timbral materials. Other musical aspects of the piece reflect summer’s place within the larger hyperobject that includes all four seasons. The general characteristics of fall, winter, and spring are implied through listening to the summer, Lilliputian Arctic Deviation. Generally, Lilliputian Arctic Deviation features sharp articulated sounds of short duration, while sustained pitches are dynamically soft and fade in and out of the overall texture. Certain timbres are tight and subdued, such as a prevalence of muted brass, pizzicato and col legno battuto in the strings, and the use of wooden percussion. Set class (014) is used exclusively throughout the piece and is reflective of the small amount of snow and ice in the Northern Hemisphere respective to the amount found in the winter. Finally, since this process of the Earth has been and will continue to happen long before and after the years featured in this piece, this musical composition serves as an interpretation of a small fraction of the overall process, a hyperobject well beyond our ability to experience in our lifetimes.

Hur kan hyperobjekt och critical design kombineras för att ge en bredare förståelse av människans påverkan på vatten, och till mindre del vind, i bäckar, åar och andra kroppar av vatten? I mitt kandidatarbete har jag siktat på att kombinera critical design och hyperobjekt och försökt sätta dem sida vid sida genom analys och reflektion av Dunne & Raby (u.d.) och Morton (2013) (och ett flertal andra artiklar relaterade till ämnet) som nära relaterade ämnen för att förenkla och konkretisera dem. Genom visualisering vill jag visa hur naturen har en egen agens, och hur vi som människor påverkar denna vilja. Genom en artefakt som tar vinden och vattnets kraft och ger den form på ett papper hjälper jag att visa naturens agens. De gestaltningar som jag får fram fungerar som åskådarens inblick i naturens vilja, ett fönster för att förstå naturen på ett sätt som hen inte har gjort förut. “Naturens vilja” förklaras genom historiska och geologiska fenomen och hur vi människor som ett enat samhälle påverkar den. I kandidatarbetet tar jag även upp relaterad litteratur för att ge en inblick i hur dessa ämnen ses av forsknings och filosofi-samhället. Detta för att kunna relatera mitt arbete till andras mer än bara visuellt och ytligt. Jag hoppas med denna artikel att vårt samhälle kan förstå vår påverkan på naturen på ett nytt sätt, eller att den förändrar en persons synvinkel om ens en gnutta. Den ska inte tvinga till förändring, men snarare leda till upplysning och kritiskt tänkande hos individen. Slutligen tas vidare forskning och inspiration upp, detta för att bygga vidare min gestaltning och forskning för framtida arbeten, och därefter summeras mitt arbete med retrospektiv. / How can hyperobjects and critical design be combined to give a broader understanding of man’s influence on water and wind in rivers and other kinds of bodies of water. This article has aimed to combine critical design and hyperobjects and tried to put them side to side through analysis and reflection of Dunne & Raby (n.d) and Morton (2013) (and a number of other articles related to the theme) as closely related things to simplify and concretize two broad themes. Through visualisation I show how nature has its own agency, and how we as humans influence this will. Through an artefact that picks up water and wind’s force and gives it form on a piece of paper I help show nature’s agency. The pictures I create work as the viewer’s window into nature’s will, a window to understand nature in a way that they have not before. “Nature’s will” is explained through historical and geological phenomena and how we as a human society influence this will. The article also brings up related literature to give an idea how these themes are viewed by the science and philosophy communities. With this article I hope that our society can understand what influences nature in new ways, or that it changes a person's way of viewing things, even if just a little. It does not aim to force change, but rather hopes to enlightenment and critical thinking in the individual. Finally, further research and inspiration is brought forward, to build upon my design work and research for future work. My work is summarized in a retrospective after this.

This essay analyzes Death Stranding, the 2019 release from contemporary game auteur Hideo Kojima. Here, I discuss the unique potentialities of this game world, detailing the ways in which Death Stranding expresses ecological perspectives. Asynchronous multiplayer serves as a unique metagame, helping to prove that play is a process of action which facilitates ecological thinking. The world of Death Stranding is filled with strange objects. The nonhuman entities that the player encounters throughout the game, for example, seem entirely alien. And yet, when these entities are properly understood, we realize that their inclusion is necessary--and natural. Your "job" in the game is to deliver packages. The player is made aware that here, in this digital world, objects have an unusual weight. What can we learn when we play this game? As the player becomes increasingly immersed in this digital world, Death Stranding motivates deeper thinking about the world outside of the game. Although this is a work of fiction, play helps us to consider our impact on the world at large. Death Stranding affords things their proper power and considers human existence in context with a larger, ecological whole.