nothing
A frame around nothing, asking what it means for anything to begin.
Before the universe had light, structure, or even time, there is the question of what it means for anything to begin. "nothing" is a philosophical artifact: a paradox framed deliberately at the threshold of the Origins Archive. It represents the space where explanation collapses—where beginnings point toward something deeper than the events themselves. By attempting to frame nothing, we reveal that even emptiness requires a context.
A golden frame surrounding an empty field, representing the impossibility of framing nothing.
- The Planck Epoch
~13.8 billion years agocosmologicaltheoryPrimordial - Cosmic Microwave Background
~13.8 billion years agocosmologicalmapPrimordial - Light
~13.8 billion years agocosmologicallightPrimordial - The Cosmic Web (SDSS)
~13.8 billion years agocosmologicalmapContemporary - Murchison Meteorite
~7.0 billion years agogeologicalAustraliameteoritePre-Solar - The Sun
~4.6 billion years agoastronomicalphotographContemporary - Earth
~4.5 billion years agocosmologicalplanetSolar - Stromatolites
~3.5 billion years agopalaeontologicalAustraliafossilArchaean - Prochlorococcus
~2.5 billion years agobiologicalspecimenEvolutionary - Dickinsonia
~555 million years agopalaeontologicalAustraliafossilEdiacaran - Jellyfish (Desmonema annasethe)
~500 million years agobiologicalspecimenCambrian - Tiktaalik
~375 million years agopalaeontologicalNorth AmericafossilDevonian - Trilobite Mass Death Bed
~252 million years agopalaeontologicalGlobal oceansfossilPaleozoic - Archaeopteryx
~150 million years agopalaeontologicalEuropefossilJurassic - The Fighting Dinosaurs
~75 million years agopalaeontologicalAsiafossilCretaceous - K-Pg Boundary Layer
~66 million years agogeologicalGlobalrockCretaceous - Laetoli Footprints
~3.7 million years agoanthropologicalAfricafossilPliocene - Wonderwerk Cave
~1.0 million years agoarchaeologicalAfricasedimentPaleolithic - La Chapelle-aux-Saints Burial
~60 thousand years agoarchaeologicalEuropeburialPleistocene - Chauvet Cave Rhinos
~31 thousand years agoartisticalEuropepaintingAurignacian - Cueva de las Manos
~11 thousand years agoartisticalSouth AmericapaintingHolocene - The Ankh
2500 BCEsymbolicalAfricasymbolAncientEgypt - Canopic Jars
2500 BCEarchaeologicalAfricavesselAncientEgypt - The Sri Yantra
1500 BCEmetaphysicalAsiaDiagramVedicIndia - Ouroboros
1330 BCEmythologicalAfricasymbolAncientEgypt - The Book of the Dead
1250 BCEtheologicalAfricaScrollAncientEgypt - The Tree of Life
863 BCEarchaeologicalAsiareliefIron AgeAssyrian - Om (ॐ)
800 BCEtheologicalAsiasymbolAncientIndian - Janus
715 BCEmythologicalEuropebustAntiquityRome - Socrates
399 BCEphilosophicalEuropeHumanClassicalAthens - Yin Yang
305 BCEmetaphysicalAsiasymbolClassicalChina - Memento Mori
50 CEsymbolicalEuropemotifClassical - The Neijing Tu
200 CEphilosophicalstele19th CenturyChinese - The Baghdad Battery
200 CEarchaeologicalartifactAncientPersian - Indra’s Net
300 CEphilosophicalAsiametaphorAncientIndia - The Zen Ensō
850 CEphilosophicalAsiasymbolMedievalAsian - Kené
1000 CEanthropologicaltextileContemporaryShipibo - The Crab Nebula
1054 CEastronomicalNebulaMedieval - The Aztec Sun Stone
1479 CEcosmologicalNorth AmericamonolithMedievalMexica - The Creation of Adam
1512 CEartisticalEuropepaintingRenaissanceItaly - The Ambassadors
1533 CEartisticalEuropepaintingModernGreat Britain - Cogito, ergo sum
1637 CEphilosophicalEuropetextModernFrance - Infinity (∞)
1655 CEmathematicalEuropesymbolModernEuropean - The I Ching
1703 CEphilosophicalAsiabookClassicalChina - The Blue Morpho
1705 CEbiologicalSouth AmericaSpecimenAnthropoceneAmazonian - Double Slit Experiment
1801 CEphysicalEuropeexperimentEnlightenment - The Liberty Cap
1803 CEmycologicalEuropeillustrationModernEuropean - Tree of Life (Darwin’s Notebook)
1859 CEbiologicalEuropeillustrationVictorianGreat Britain - E = mc²
1905 CEphysicalEuropeequationModern - The Solar Eclipse
1919 CEastronomicalAfricaeventContemporary - Trinity
1945 CEphysicalphotographModernAmerican - DNA
1953 CEbiologicalEuropemoleculeAnthropoceneGlobal - The Penrose Diagram
1963 CEcosmologicalEuropediagramModern - The Higgs Boson
2012physicalEuropeeventContemporaryGlobal - K2-18b
2015astronomicalplanetModern - M87*
2019astronomicalblack holeModern - Cheyava Falls
2024astrobiologyJezero Cratermartian-rock2024 CENASA / Perseverance
