Those of you who joined us for the first session in our Collective Conscience series with Eames Demetrios (Monday 7/27) got a taste of the mind-bending storytelling that is innate to his fascinating project, Kcymaerxthaere. Watch this space for future dates with Eames! Until then, dive into the Looking Glass that is Kcymaerxthaere – and follow the embedded links to discover more.
In Kcymaerxthaere, Can there be a Pandemic?
Kcymaerxthaere is a parallel universe that has some points of contact with our linear world. I wouldn’t call disease necessarily one of those points of contact, but there are various kinds of diseases in both. But Kcymaerxthaere is not a mirror of our world—it is more like sharing an apartment with a fellow tenant whom not only do you never see, but they take their belongings with them when they are out. So there is scant evidence they are there—even when you know where to look.
So this is a very appropriate question for those us in the linear world, but some of the experiences we take for granted would be as bewildering to them as some of their stories are to us. So let me give an answer with some footnotes to follow up on:
First, there probably can’t be our specific pandemic in Kcymaerxthaere, but there have been significant large-scale epidemics. The reason for the distinction is basically logistical: not all rezhns (those variously colored areas on the map we showed in the salon) contain the sort of jemvelac that permit such spread. Some even have dimensions unfamiliar to us that literally thwart that kind of spread—as a result the black market in such dimensions is quite robust.
The organisms at the cutting edge of this kind of research are the pattern scientists. One of the most famous is the xthaedra Terrad Slemt Surphell, who was able predict the future by studying the rejected produce from Universe Farms. The rejected universes and futures in the creation tailings often shed light on major trends in possible futures—including significant epidemics. Different communities handled such epidemics in radically different ways.
But that is another story.
Eames Demetrios is the Geographer-at-Large for a parallel universe called Kcymaerxthaere, which has been installed through 124 markers and historical sites in 26 countries. He is also the director of the Eames Office, dedicated to communicating, preserving and extending the work of Charles and Ray Eames, and is Chairman of the Board of the Eames Foundation. He consults to companies that are trying to integrate design and new kinds of thinking into their corporate culture.