Hyperrhiz 27

Eco-Fables: Tales of Multispecies Inc.

Parsons & Charlesworth

Citation: , Parsons & Charlesworth. “Eco-Fables: Tales of Multispecies Inc..” Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures, no. 27, 2024. doi:10.20415/hyp/027.a05

Abstract: Eco-Fables: Tales of Multispecies Inc. is an interactive environment blending climate fiction and worldbuilding to explore the story of Multispecies Inc., a grassroots organization that develops tools to prevent species extinction and promote ecological balance. Participants navigate a detailed virtual landscape—complete with mountains, forests, lakes, and a day-night cycle—while listening to original narrated stories. The environment integrates hand-drawn elements and kin-gatherer tools, wildlife photography, 3D renderings, and scans of organic materials like moss and trees. Key scenes such as the "Phenology Diary" and "System Memorandum" transport users to Multispecies Inc. outposts, providing insight into everyday activities and organizational structures that encourage multispecies collaboration, and encounter “The System” – Multispecies Inc.’s AI ally – issuing orders to members of the group to maintain ecological equilibrium. This structural layout is meticulously designed to mirror the organizational hierarchy of Multispecies Inc., providing participants with a deeper understanding of the tools and motivations of the group. This environment offers a visually rich, thought-provoking experience that invites reflection on the ethics of human-non-human relationships and the urgent need to rethink our role in addressing ecological crises, making it a compelling resource for those researching speculative futures, environmentalism, and biodiversity.

Fiction written by Parsons & Charlesworth; voiceover narration by Renee Young.

Keywords: speculative design, ecofiction, climate fiction, multispecies, geodesic, ecology, futures, kin.

View Project: Eco-Fables: Tales of Multispecies Inc.

Instructions for navigation: Best viewed on desktop, using Chrome browser. Use the WASD keys to navigate and use the cursor to choose direction. Move forward into the geodesic dome and enter through one of the colored triangular frames. Look for colored triangle windows to move from one scene to another. Click in the window to play sound and hear the narration.

Artist Statement

In the current ecological crisis there is a new focus upon decentering the human in relation to non-human species. “Entangled relationships” replace hierarchical ones, yet these theories largely ignore the physical realities of multispecies cohabitation. Our studio Parsons & Charlesworth is undertaking a multi-year, multi-part project entitled Multispecies Inc. that aims to make transformative insights about our relationship to nature and the more-than-human world more legible and more available to people through art and design works.

Continuing our process of using fictional entities as vehicles for the exploration of prescient topics, we created Multispecies Inc., an organization that makes tools for “multispecies living”. At its core, the Multispecies Inc. project aims to craft nuanced narratives that explore a future where humans coexist harmoniously with other species using advanced AI technology. In broad terms the project is an allegory of our treatment of our planet, and attempts to offer a lens through which to consider the challenges we collectively face when attempting to reverse the damage caused by human exceptionalism. It speaks to our desire to both convene with, and control “nature” and uncovers the prejudices and contradictions we hold towards interaction with other species. Through a series of narratives, objects, and digital collages, Multispecies Inc. serves as an artistic framework for examining the complex interactions between humans and other living beings.

Across a variety of outcomes and media the project shares the stories of this global network of ecological stewards, grown from a grassroots movement that uses advanced digital sensing and AI technology to halt species extinctions and pursue equilibrium. Decentering the human by fostering multispecies cohabitation, each communal outpost of Multispecies Inc. manages a biome, gathering data on every species, monitoring behavior and intervening to adjust for scarcity or overabundance.

“Eco-Fables: Tales of Multispecies Inc.” incorporates scenes and portals that transport participants between the various outposts of Multispecies Inc. It utilizes worldbuilding as a creative practice to construct immersive environments, reveal intricate systems, and share thought-provoking narratives that challenge prevailing notions of human exceptionalism and our relationship with the natural world.

Screenshots