Another After: The Essay at the End of Time

Lina Selander: The Eye Is the First Circle (2023)

This interdisciplinary project aims to understand how climate change shapes our ideas about time, particularly the concept of “the end.” Climate change involves both rapid events that require urgent action and slow processes unfolding over centuries. Often, climate change appears as an ongoing process without a clear endpoint. This challenges our traditional, linear way of thinking about time, with a clear beginning and end. Studies show that people on average can only imagine about fifteen years into the future, making longer timescales difficult to grasp.

The project investigates how the essay – in both literary and filmic forms – can help us understand and communicate these altered perceptions of time. The research increases our knowledge of climate-related timescales. It also develops new methods within artistic research, environmental humanities, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Principal investigator: Mara Lee Gerdén
Co-investigator: Lina Selander
Funded by: The Swedish Research Council
Project period: 2026-28