Human + #hyperobject
Featuring one relationship from our community per month.
Lewis Ochieng’ Ombaka (Kenya) + #darkmatter
Where do you feel most at home?
I feel most at home in the quiet folds of the universe, in the invisible tension between galaxies, where gravity hums softly and light bends around the unseen. Yet, on Earth, my home is the Kenyan savannah at night, where the horizon dissolves into cosmic silence and the air feels charged with the same mystery that binds the stars.
Which elements feel like you?
I am hydrogen and shadow, the first breath of creation and the unseen scaffolding that holds it together. I resonate with the cold elegance of neutrinos and the patient gravity of dark matter, both silent architects of form.
Which colors reflect your essence?
Deep indigo fading into black, threaded with faint gold, the palette of unseen energy weaving through the cosmos. It's the color of the void, not as emptiness, but as potential.
What lights you up?
The realization that even darkness glows faintly when you look long enough. That the universe is not a stage lit by stars, but a vast ocean of invisible forces, each ripple a conversation between matter and energy.
Photo credit: öjbsjbfgöajkdfbjakWhich #hyperobject are you in a relationship with?
Dark matter, the invisible architecture of existence. It's not a thing I study; it's a presence I feel. It moves through me, through everything, shaping galaxies and thoughts alike.
How did your relationship begin?
It began with curiosity - the kind that keeps you awake at night. I looked at the stars and realized the visible wasn't enough to explain their dance. The unseen became my obsession, the gravitational poetry behind everything. I started reading cosmic maps, tracing filaments of matter that never emit light, and somewhere between theory and wonder, I fell in love with the invisible.
How do you relate to I communicate with them?
Through equations, simulations, and silence. I listen to distortions of light, the bending of space, the subtle fingerprints of gravity. It's a conversation without words - a resonance between thought and cosmos. Sometimes, I feel it in the stillness of night, when the air itself seems to hum with unseen energy.
What have they taught you?
That mystery is not a flaw in understanding but its foundation. That what we cannot see often holds everything together. They've taught me humility, that the universe doesn't owe us clarity, only presence.
What was the most powerful realization / moment with them?
Standing beneath the Kenyan sky, realizing that the same invisible matter shaping galaxies also passes through me - that I am, in part, made of the unseen. It was a moment of cosmic intimacy: the realization that the boundary between self and universe is porous, that we are all filaments in the same web of energy.
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Lewis Ochieng’ Ombaka is a Kenyan innovator, writer, and cosmic thinker. He founded a digital marketplace for Kenya and developed pioneering software for real‑time sleep recognition, blending technology with human experience. His creative practice explores the invisible architectures of the universe -especially dark matter and cosmic energy - weaving together science, philosophy, and poetics. His first book, Quantum Consciousness: Dark Matter and the Mind, will be published in 2027, offering a bold exploration of the intersections between quantum physics and human awareness.