Welcome to the Museum of Otherwise. We have always been in your world but hidden. We now offer you an opportunity to learn about our way of being.
[[Visit The Island's location]]
[[Learn about the ethos of radical equality]]The Island is located in what is commonly known as the Bermuda Triangle. We have been here since 1346. As we understand it, our existence has been speculated on by some humans but never proven. We have been protected from the rest of Earth by a cloaking shield; a gift from The Unknown that has allowed us to develop in seclusion even as we have always been here on Earth.
[[How did The Island come to be?]]
[[Learn about the ethos of radical equality]] There are no species on the island. Rather every living being is part of the equality between human, land, and creatures. So “existents” are what we call “persons” (human and nonhuman alike). Equity is central to our notion of equality. Rights, privileges, protections, and distributions therein are based on situated needs not blanket "equal" amounts of everything. Radical equality sees individualism as at the root of inequality. So we have a more networked, relational understanding. This is embodied in the existent’s life cycle; we go through multiple species lifecycles and are thus constituted of all of them.
We are more than one. We see things from multiple perspectives. Harm happens to all not one. This forms the basis for our ethos.
This is not a world in which harm does not exist, but one that operates according to principles of restorative justice. Radical equality is a practice and not an end point: an unfinished and potentially unfinishable project. We constantly need to revise and critique the terms of equality. This is done through our Council of All Beings, a rotating form of governance that involves all existents, and gives all equal opportunity to speak and be heard. Communication is an exchange on equal terms. The Museum of Otherwise is part of this process of radical equality. It allows its visitors to develop an understanding of the island but also a call for advice from their own ‘human’ histories about how we might care for each other.
[[Visit The Island's location]]
[[What is an existent?<-Who lives by this ethos?]]
[[An Existent Songbook<-Listen to a song about restorative justice]]
[[The Mirrors of Existent<-How do existents learn to live as radical equals?]] The Island is the consequence of an Unidentified Falling Object (UFO) that came to Earth in 1346. The UFO and this event are shrouded in uncertainty. As the existents are animated by a degree of epistemic humility, they acknowledge that there is no way to narrate or capture a single “origin” of their island. There are a variety of stories and myths that exist about how the island came to be, but the existents are self-consciously aware that these stories are supposed to serve a cultural purpose, and do not purport to represent the origins of the island in itself.
The existents do believe that the UFO is what allowed existents to learn that humanity is only the first stage of existing and for the life cycle to extend beyond the human life span. In addition to this biological gift, the UFO provided other gifts in the form of the very land upon which The Island exists, but also The Orb.
All seek knowledge. All seek answers. The Orb gives an existent what they need and no more. This effervescent sphere hovers inside of the still-maintained UFO Control Room. All existants can approach The Orb and ask it questions—about their lives, their cycles, the world, and more. Yet this divine figure is used most consistently by the humans, the least knowing life stage of an existent. As the humans shift into new forms of existents and gain deeper forms of understanding and knowledge of their natural world and their palace within it, they often lose the same desire they once had to consult the orb. More highly evolved existents begin to help humans interpret the Orb’s often equivocal sayings, most notably, about the Island’s origins.
[[What is an existent?]]
[[An Existent Songbook<-Listen to a song about the island's origin]]
[[Orb Space<-Learn more about the orb]] An existent is any living being that cycles through different species. While there are some beings on the island that stay in the same form for the duration of their existence - a blade of grass, an earthworm - existents are beings on the island that have committed to radical equality and enact this ontology by taking on different modes of being.
All existents begin as humans but upon achieving an ethic of common care are able to enter their next life cycle as a different creature. On the island, humans are the least wise existents because they have the most limited perspective on what it means to be in this community. All existents end as bacteria.
The island is home to four pods comprised of existents in different stages of life. The pods rotate through the different ecotemporalities of the island. Pods are responsible for ensuring that existents learn how to live as radical equals. As existents aspire to build better futures for themselves and others, education is a collective endeavor and pods will only gain more wisdom as each existent does. Any existent who harms themselves or another is harming the whole pod.
[[Shared External Womb<-How do existents come to be?]]
[[What is an ecotemporality?]]
[[Educationem civitas<-How do existents and pods know if they are learning to be more equal?]] <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L7_eQUJcI3gHOCtuv2QTsQfM0uqtnqJg/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">The Shared External Womb (SEW)</a> makes reproduction a collective activity. The womb functions as long as it is in contact with human skin and thus can be shared between any set of humans who wish to be parents of a new existent. While the SEW can tolerate brief moments without skin contact, childbearing remains an embodied activity, but one that is empowering for all who wish to do so.
While humanity is the first stage of an existent's life cycle (and thus only humans reproduce), the SEW involves contribution from other species on The Island. The most interior compartment of the SEW, which holds the fetus, is the body of a jellyfish, which absorbs any shock from sudden movements, or during the SEW transfer process to another human carrier, that might otherwise cause damage to the fetus. Additionally, there are insertion points at which fruit flies can enter into the internal region of the womb to digest and break down any fungus or bacteria that might be developing, protecting the baby from harmful infection. Finally, the casing of the womb is made up of gingko leaves, which serve to infuse enriching antioxidants into the babies’ nourishment in order to facilitate proper health and growth as the fetus develops. The various contributions of the different species within the community make childbearing not only a shared responsibility of humans, but uphold the ethos of care by involved the contributions of all existents. Humans learn that they must care for other existents just as the other existents have cared for them.
Curated by Hanna Blankemeier
[[Educationem civitas<-How is mutual care learned?]]
[[What is an ecotemporality?<-Why are fruit flies, gingko tress, and jellyfish special?]] Worldbuilding allows us to envision a future where community care is prized over capital, where students are granted equal education in the arts, and where nutritious food is available to and grown by all. Speculation not only gives us the tools to create more hopeful futures, but it also encourages us to question the determinacy of the past.
Grace CamposMusic is an integral part of our daily lives. Our most effective and enjoyable method of communication is through song. Of course, our songs sound different depending on which existent is singing them, but we all understand them to be the same pieces of music that have been passed down through generations.
While existents have a largely oral tradition, they have translated and recorded two songs for the museum
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/almagracemusic/one-in-the-same/s-xDeBsi2Y05n" target="_blank">“One in the Same”</a> was created as a cautionary tale of the Colonizer’s Land––teaching both the history of the first humans to be brought into The Island's ecosystem and how community care can serve to heal.
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/almagracemusic/ours/s-KesY4YfSLgl" target="_blank">“Ours”</a> is a piece we sing every Celestial Festival (or CelestFest, some pods call this the Liminality Festival). The Celestial Festival celebrates a change in eco-temporality––during this shift, all existents transform into new life forms. Above all, the festival is a spiritual celebration. We never know exactly what it is that causes the spokes on The Island to turn and temporalities to shift, but we believe that it is dependent on our collaboration in overcoming obstacles and selshness. Please note that all pod members participate in this CelestFest performance. The swallows gurgle, the butterflies flap their wings, and the wolves howl––somehow we are all able to sing in harmony.
Curated by Grace Campos
[[Shrine to Urritpopsis dohrnii<-What else happens at CelestFest]]
[[Interspecies Lending Library and Gathering Space<-Where else on the island to existents go to learn with and about each other?]] On our island, there is a fungal species not found elsewhere. //Educationem civitas// has evolved over our seven centuries here to perform a very central role in existents path through the mammalian lifestage. In this first stage, existents must figure out what it takes to live as radical equals and this fungus registers a pod's attempts to learn, successfully and otherwise. Its mycelium will expand and contract based on how much a pod cooperates together, and its bioluminescent mushroom caps will signal in different colors if something needs urgent attention. That’s not to say that existents are able to tell immediately what the fungus is registering and why it is responding in certain ways: learning to tune oneself into its rhythm, to collectively figure out its patterns of response, the shapes that it makes and unmakes in response to a pod's efforts, is part of what it means to become human. This is because to us, the human is never just the human being, a discrete body, but is rather always already part of the set of multispecies, animate-inanimate relationships that exist on this island.
Curated by Jack McCordick
[[Interspecies Lending Library and Gathering Space<-What are other sights of learning on the island?]]
[[The Mirrors of Existent<-How else do existents learn to be accountable to others?]] <a href="https://s3.gifyu.com/images/ezgif-6-b28ade73e050.gif" target="_blank">These sketches</a> were found by one of the museum curators. It's hard to explain how the different ecotemporalities feel, but it seems as though this is the work of an existent who was trying to capture that.
There is a bird, and then another bird, and then a feather, and then a mushroom, and then two more, and then a fly, and a building, a spider, a break, and a bird again. The loop reveals that the beginning was another end, and the end another beginning, and the middle another end and beginning and so on. While the animation is fast it is also slow. It demands a viewing mode, namely, watching and rewatching.
A scrap of text was found near this animation
...Is this a good thing?
We hope
Hope is a good thing.
Hope is not a thing.
Some of us
Find it in feather.
In the feather.
Floating feather.
Hoping air.
Losing air.
Soothing air.
A feather
Hope is there.
There is hope.
Hope will leap...
Curated by Rasmus Schlutter
[[Shared External Womb<-How do existents come to be?]]
[[The Mirrors of Existent<-Where else on the island can existents see themselves in relation to each other?]] When existent pods move to a new ecotemporality - an event that happens every 5 years (as measured by a standard solar year), two pods have a rare opportunity to come together and commemorate the gift of experiencing the different temporalities of the world. Each ecotemporality has its own shrine and attending ritual. Here is a description of the shrine to the //Urritpopsis dohrnii// - the Jellyfish Shrine
The Jellyfish Shrine is just over thirty feet tall and, due to a magnetic field, floats almost magically a few inches above the earth. The smooth top of thestatue is crafted in translucent, rainbow marble and represents the body of a jellyfish. The interior of this body glows from insidethe marble, pulsating with rich shades pinks and blues. Dangling down from this swirling, colorful body is a sea of tentacles waving in every direction. Formed out of a fleshy, soft material, these tentacles are long and can stretch to extend dozens of feet past the floating, marble body. The tentacles drift in the wind, almost suspended, and form a massive radius surrounding this central figure. At the end of tentacles are small bioluminescent beads that radiate technicolor light when touched by existents. The statue seems to emanate a soft, whooshing sound, like water running through a cave.
During these transition festivals, the pods surround the shrines at once, quickly forming aperfect circle—yet another symbol of cyclicality and rebirth. They intermix with the existents of other pods such that no existent stands next to an existent from its own pod. As these existents move closer and closer to the shrine, the whooshing sound gets louder and louder. Each existent connects with one of the tentacles—those than can grab it, do; the tentacles float upwards and magnetizes gently to those that can’t grab them on their own. Once every existent makes contact with one of these tentacles, the whooshing abruptlystops. Silence. Stillness. The bioluminescent beads begin glowing powerfully. The Shrine becomes a beacon of light for the entire community. For a few moments, the existents all remain motionless.
Then, the Jellyfish shrine starts to rise, propelling slowly upwards as if through water. The existents begin moving clockwise (so as to contrast their normal counterclockwise movements) around the Shrine. Tethered to these glowing tentacles, existents march in unison, slowly. Over time, the tentacles start to vibrate, and these vibrations start to release different sound frequencies, one for each of the different existents. As the circular march continues,these frequencies layer on top of each other, creating a sonic soundscape,an orchestra of white noise, a symphony of stillness. The bioluminescentlights glow even brighter, and some tentacles bob in the air, casting the entire jungle in a multicolored rainbow of light. Other tentacles slowly whiz around the shrine, consuming the existents in a soft barrage of wind. In this ceremony, the existents feel suspended in a ring of glowing lights, buzzing sounds, and whistling winds.
On display at the museum is <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y2eEL4U0v3QAi6ntuPT0TwNKkkzGhPyC/view?usp=sharing">a sketch</a> one of the existents drew after the ritual as they moved on to the next ecotemporality.
Curated by Alec Zbornak
[[How does time feel?]]
[[Orb Space<-What does the UFO ecotemporality sound like?]]
[[An Existent Songbook<-What other kinds of peformance exist on the island?]] In the center of The Island, in the UFO ecotemporality, there is a library and gather space where knowledge and objects are shared. As a place of learning and community betterment, this is also where restorative justice is practiced.
Every existent has a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K8YZdKTe8bxYsRz78qoB7gWiD3_X3IvB/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">library card</a>. They do not carry it around, but rather it is on display in the library. This is a space for everyone, where belonging is gaurunteed. All existents have access to the library, its material and nonmaterial goods and services, and are therefore dependent on one another to ensure that individual actions do not harm others’ ability to utilize and enjoy the space.
The Interspecies Lending Library and Gathering Space is predicated on the fact that all existents are connected to each other in some way and are therefore interdependent on one another. The good, as well as the bad, ripples throughthe island community and all are affected in differentiated but ultimately similar ways. When an existent damages a good or service that they have checked out from the library, the harm permeates through the community and all are worse off for it. Existents strive to treat others at the library and the library’s goods and services with the utmost respect and care, as they want others and future generations to be able to enjoy this place and its many offerings as much as they do. The notion of interspecies dependency also applies to the sharing of knowledge that takes place at the library. Existents who do not appreciate or take seriously that which is being taught to them ultimately injures the community by risking that it will become overall less empathicand understanding.
[[Orb Space<-How else is restorative justice practiced?]]
[[An Existent Songbook<-Listen to a song about restorative justice]]
[[Educationem civitas<-Learn more about education]] Known as the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xEsQDn24RBC_W_X2G40wAXTzv3zTnfpx/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">“Mirrors of Existent,”</a> “Mirrors of Existent,” this artifact is a part of the chipped exterior of the mysterious UFO orb, which can be found in the liminal center between the four ecotemporalities.
When existents in the human form learn that they are the only the first stage of existent, they can fall into the problematic or rather harmful (to their pod) trajectory of thinking and acting individually. A myth persists that says if one is brave enough to journey to the center of the island by themselves, they will be able to find all the answers in the universe to their questions, including the origin of the island. Most of the time, the driving force behind this journey is their quest for self-discovery: knowing who they are, where they come from, and where to go next.
Legend states that when the humans reach the center of the island in hopes of finding the UFO for answers, they encounter a towering wall covered in a shiny and alluring metallic-like surface, which turns out to be the exterior of the Orb. But instead of what the myth promises - that one would be able to gain answers to their individuality via this “mirror” - humans become unable to identify themselves in the reflection. They cannot distinguish themselves from their surroundings. Instead, the image they see is mashed up and as a result, there is not one but multiple images with slight movements of the existent distorting the images further. Instead of trying to identify themselves, the existents are more taken by the changing reflections that can be seen in the ripples of the mirror, prompting the existents to rethink themselves as individuals but as inseparable from the collective. This artifact marks a human existents’ discovery of their impermanence, realizing that the life they are currently leading is only the first stage of an existent.
Curated by Dewi Tan
[[Orb Space<-Tell me more about Orb Space]]
[[What is an existent?]]
[[How did The Island come to be?<-Learn more about the origins of the UFO]]
This is an illustrated depiction of a small area within Orb Space. It is a copy of that used by the Orb Space Sustainment Team (OSST) for reference during brainstorm sessions regarding ways to accommodate self-inquirers–an ongoing project given the unpredictable numbers of Existents that might undergo Self-Correctional Facilitation (SCF). SCF occurs whenever an Existent starts acting or intending to act out of alignment with either the island's principle of Radical Equality or their individual goals and aspirations.
As shown, Existents abound in deep contemplation because the Orb makes present bodies and minds within its infinite knowledge – thereby inviting radical empathy as Existents come to know themselves in relation with and as other Existents. The wind you hear is a vital relation within Orb Space. The wind holds both intentions and Existents in its flow, carrying them to the Orb as is needed. The Orb Space is an antithesis to patriarchal, white supremacist punishment culture.
Curated by Estrella Castillo
[[What is an existent?]]
[[The Mirrors of Existent<-What does the Orb look like?]]
[[Learn about the ethos of radical equality]] The Island consists of five ecotemporalities, co-occuring around a liminal space that is outside of these temporalities at its center. Existents move through the ecotemporalities, along with their pod, throughout their life. Ecotemporalities don’t have an equivalent outside of the island and so they are hard to explain. In essence, each ecotemporality has an associated existent. The five eco-temporalities correspond to the first existents to encounter and inhabit the island. The way that being experiences time is how all existents in that ecotemporality experience time.
The five temporalities are
* The Mammilian Ecotemporality - Human Time.
* The Insect Ecotemporality - Fruit Fly Time
* The Plant Ecotemporality - Ginkgo Tree Time
* The Fungi Ecotemporality - Psilocybin Mushroom Time
* The Sea Creature Ecotemporality - Urritopsis dohrnii (Jellyfish) Time
There is an additional Ecotemporality that exists outside of the cyclical relationality of these other ecotemporalities
* The UFO Ecotemporality – Orb Time
Ecotemporalities allow existents at various life stages to learn from other beings; to be in the world in a different way and therefore better understand how to care for The Island and their pod community.
When the existents move between eco-temporalities, there is a festival to commemorate the transition. In moving between eco-temporalities, pods leave behind all that facilitated their flourishing in order to care for the pod that comes after. While existents make objects and structures, there is no sense of ownership of things or land. The Island is host to four pods. One ecotemporality is always unoccupied; a chance for regrowth or reconfiguring.
[[Shrine to Urritpopsis dohrnii<-A festival sounds fun. Tell me more]]
[[Orb Space<-Take me to Orb Time]]
[[Interspecies Lending Library and Gathering Space<-What else happens in the UFO ecotemporality?]]
[[How does time feel?<-How does it feel to be in these different ecotemporalities?]]