Ad Extremum Terrae Anthology of Dystopias and of Ways of Loving T C Kid Through this collection of texts, narratives are seen as opportunities rather than destinies; an invitation to multiple futures rather than to a fixed fate. It is a concession to continue, change and speculate around resolved or unresolved threads. By walking through poems that are meant to be songs, sliding on misplaced words and getting lost in incoherent paths, otherness is seen as a liquid territory. This anthological attempt naively rethinks our shapes, identities, ways of loving and clum- sily tries to exceed human-centered logics. We hope it is inviting enough to meander through a mutating space that could be as small as a village and as infinite as the Internet network. A group of physicists researching on string theory and other possible unified theo- ries were trying to determine how many dimensions the universe has, with the hope of finding alternative ways to preserve our dying planet. Ecologists, on their side, were attempting to give sovereignty back to nature as a radical solution to the water shortage announced for 2050. Both parties decided to unite forces to subject humanity to a massive structural revolution. The process of intervening both at the cosmological and planetary level triggered a second big bang, this time involving dimensions. All dimensions were subjected to interac- tions that led to the merging of some, the splitting of others and the disappearance of a few of them. The result was a highly non-linear mix of known time and space with other previously unknown dimensions that led to a host of unexpected phenomena. Time be- came fractioned, and with it the memory of historical events became completely scattered. Matter oscillated into energy and pulsated as a living organism; objects dissolved and reappeared as if inhabited by feelings and emotions. The notion of reality disappeared, being replaced by an oniric blend in which banalities became worlds on their own, minerals acquired personality attributes involving intense love stories and deep crises, ancient thinkers reappeared flirting with XXIst century concepts and social constructs became shuffled, blurring the boundary between objects and living beings. While digitalization took over material existence, imagination became a concrete country for conscient beings, with passport and all. The world ended several times, at different times, in different places. More precise- ly, time and space ended and arose at many multidimensional coordinate points. Never- theless, existential matters remained relevant for some reason, providing the only common thread throughout this chaotic universe. And, as a response, despite the violent and un- predictable fluctuations, love (and the search of) prevailed in all forms. Characters: Aegus The Alchemists (a couple) Anto Black Quartz Charlie Finn Fox Gold Iphone 4 Lapis Lazuli Lucia Me Meteor The Moon Morpher III Noah Octopus The Oak Tree Onyx Plants (in troupe) Precipice Quarry The Scientist Sphinx Tourmaline Three sisters Vastness The Wise-ones You Noah They would meet in Noah’s dreams and live all kinds of adventures. From the most mundane experiences to the most eccentric ones. Going to the market to buy vegetables in alphabetical order, flying hand in hand in a zero gravity attraction park, going to see 2D movies… A whole life was lived in each dream. That is how, Noah began his love story with Gold, his mannequin that had the shape of a pregnant woman, an almost common subject to love in the world of total digitalisation. Years passed in seconds and all stages of life were lived. Sometimes life would end shortly because Gold and Noah went on an ex- cursion to the Himalayas and never came back, and sometimes the couple would live a long, very long life in a cottage in the French countryside. In their dreams they were al- ways together and mutually in love, that was the invariant factor. Noah was anxious to go to sleep every night but his dreams also fed his awake life. His multi-existential routine gave him freedom to reinvent himself. So, finally, he took back his miic and started to sing. Noah wanted to be a rockstar and had everything to be one. Despite his heart asking for a life on stage, he spent most of his time animating man- nequins through videos and helping artisans make their projects come to life. Walking around in his clogs and his oversized jeans, he spread light wherever he passed by. But Gold had changed everything, and now he sang to her, to her inanimate body, to their ad- ventures. He spent his day time imagining what he would like to do in this other realm of which he had the keys. Indeed, all was possible in the plane of shut eyes. After exploring countless identities, he was finally ready to fulfill his biggest desire: to get on stage. The Fox and the Iphone 4 In the kingdom of Abundance, objects, humans and animals, all lived together in a chaotic neo-anarchist organisation. The law system varied every month, rotating it's legis- lators and the laws with it. Selection was randomised by a lottery system, power was given to the selected group for a month and once completed, each would go back to being a regular citizen. For this system to be somewhat sustainable, all beings were given a basic educa- tion focused on social awareness and development of emotional intelligence. Economic growth was left behind and there was no more money. Social development as we know it in 2019 completely decayed and went through what sociologists and economists would call back then “a regression”. Love was the only aim, topic and way to measure anything. Validation was only found through abilities to express, integrate, criticise and extrapolate on Love. Nature was the ruler of all habitational organisation, urban and rural life merged. Just before Fox started his legislative duties, he met the Iphone 4 but decided not to follow through. As Fox finished its obligations, they spent a month corresponding, without finding an outcome to their bond. Iphone 4 to The Fox Why did you get so scared, All I wanted was to go to the petting zoo, And eat ramen With You. Why did you get so scared, our walks were going nowhere except Where we had to go. Why did you get so scared, I didn't need anything more Than the pace of our talks And the intensity of our embrace. Why did you get so scared, After breaking open your sorrows And letting me see what's inside of the cracks Behind the bruises Under the crusts. All I wanted was maybe to be heard, A little. And maybe also To sleep together. Under a blanket of tenderness That me and you both know. Iphone 4 to The Fox The 16th of March 2018 I wrote: “I would like for us to sleep in each others embrace” And that is how the hymn of my heart, starts. The one that asks for so little but needs so much. Those days, when no night was too cold, And where obscurity was an ally, Our fortuitous encounters suspended time, And the sidewalks under our feet, Uncovered the paths called to be explored. But the flatness of the road was not enough to calm your inner cries, The light touch of our hands did not soften the harshness of your fears, Our tight embraces did not succeed mending your wounds. Our sentimental branches got tangled in a forest of sighs. When you let the breeze blow the cup of the grove of your feelings, Shadows of love pierced through the foliage of senses. I felt that impalpable promises appeared at the bay of our dreams. But, Because of past storms and an agitated ocean with hostile waves, The foam of the lost souls dissolved into the chaos of the water. The scorpions kept hiding under the stones of your stream, Reshuffling the invisible pain. And the sky that had begun to clear, Returned to its grey, leaving the landscape unmoved. But for me it was enough, so much that now it is too much, I keep on walking, leaving traces of you in the corners of my mind. As this goes, so does everything. Today it is you, tomorrow it's Art, my mother or my existentialism. Flashes of silenced disappointments that are part of the constellation of my sky. The Fox What to do when the world is not your oyster? When, you feel attacked by architecture, By the weather, By the colours and the sounds. What to do when your face doesn’t seem like your own, Your voice has a foreign tone, Your skin is animus to the air, The grounds shrink on your soul, Your soul breaks into pieces, In order to fit, In all of these holes. Because nothing seems cohesive, Familiar, Friendly. All the softness is gone, Roughness is the landscape, Clouds are hostile shaped, The sun irradiates alienation, Disassociation, Aloofness, Apathy. What to do when mathematics fails you? When Love does not add to the equation? When empathy exponentiates to 0? How to continue walking, On a land, With no ground, No light, To show the way, Or at least to keep you company. Angry furniture The world was one big digital jungle. The transition between material to digital capi- talism had happened quite brutally over the past five years, a whole lot of vestiges were still to be found around. Shops were no longer a viable structure for selling goods, and most goods were anyway not material anymore. Except for food, existence on Earth was happening on cyber realms.