The Hypermemetic Garden

According to Richard Dawkins’s notion of memetics, cultural transmission is at the core of human understanding of the world. Designer Alex Werth coins the concept of hypermeme as a cultural construct that is no longer comprehensible (ala Timothy Morton’s hyperobject) and constructs realities (as per Jean Beaudrillard’s representationalism). Even things as seemingly inherently natural as plants can be hypermemes, signified by biological and cultural classification, and instigating entire industrial and infrastructural systems. The Hypermemetic Garden is a material exploration of plants as objects that grow into representative artefacts. It highlights the constructed nature of any reality that claims to be unquestionably itself.