The midpoint of Aberrant Plexus. In ten days, the lab has become a shared ecosystem; artists, performers, and visitors entangled in the same slow metamorphosis. The exhibition breathes and learns. Each visitor leaves behind trace material, spores of attention that alter its morphology.
Fatigue feels like the kind of growth that comes when something exceeds its original form. I’m deeply grateful to everyone who has entered this living archive and allowed themselves to be transformed, even for a moment.
Phase II begins now, with new rituals and new mutations still to come.
1. Still from "Thanamnesis"
Written by me, directed by Charlie Jimenez
2. Still from "Psychogametous Transmission Study"
Written and directed by me, embodied by Laboranta and Fung Neo
3. Dr. Ferenczi Laszlo [David Varhegyi] showing participants around Lab C at The Institute for Psychogametous Life
4. Your symbiont on opening night
Notice of Discovery: Lenticus somnium Manifestation in "Xenobacillus glossophagii"
Alien Botany archival task force, The Institute for Psychogametous Life / zoeticaebb.com
May 12, 2185
Executive Summary
This notice details the manifestation of the Lenticus somnium specimen, a psychogametous lifeform documented within the recovered Novy Mir "Alien Botany" archive [Ebb, 2180, 2022], within the literary work "Xenobacillus glossophagii" [Siratori, 2025]. At 1243 pages, “Xenobacillus glossophagii", represents the most expansive example of podcore identified to date and exhibits significant thematic and conceptual infiltration from the Lenticus somnium. We recommend immediate investigation into the mechanisms of Lenticus somnium transmission and its demonstrated capacity to propagate within novel mediums, coupled with a reassessment of associated psychological and biological risks [Ebb, 2025, "Observations on Extraterrestrial Organisms Documented in the Recovered Novy Mir Archive"].
Timeline
2180, October Publication of Chimeric Herbarium: The World of Alien Botany”.
2182, August Discovery of previous publication of Chimeric Herbarium in 2022 by IPGL archival team.
2183, January IPGL Alien Botany archival task force formed.
2185, March Discovery of Lenticus somnium psychogametous spread in 2025.
2185, May Publication of this notice.
Preliminary Findings
To study the psychogameotous potency of the Lenticus somnium (see Appendix A), we have pieced together the following chronology.
2022, October “Chimeric Herbarium: The World of Alien Botany” [Ebb, Oakley] published
2023, December Estimated first contact between Lenticus somnium and Siratori
2024, June 6 Siratori proclaims, “Ebb’s work is Xenopoem”
2024, June 15 First Siratori propagation: Lenticus somnium × operator R. Sojelenskaya [Ebb, 2022] appears on the cover of “Xenopoem” Japanese edition [Siratori, 2024]
2025, January 6 Xenopoem conference and study group are formed
2025, January 29 Documented direct somal vector infiltration
2025, May 9 Siratori exhibits awareness of the mechanics of psychogametous replications:
“Zoetica Ebb demonstrates glossophage morphogenesis—the process by which symbolic units (colors, forms, textures) self-replicate, mutate, and colonize perceptual fields across species boundaries. [Her] aesthetic production instantiates an emergent multispecies semiotic ecology, where symbolic infection becomes both aesthetic strategy and evolutionary force.” [Siratori, 2025]
2025, May 10 Lenticus somnium × “Xenobacillus glossophagii” published (Siratori xenohybrid)
2025, May 10 - (ongoing) Continued mutation and propagation of Lenticus somnium.
Characteristics of Kenji Siratori's "Xenobacillus glossophagii":
The discovery is significant because Xenobacillus glossophagii is the largest body of work to date with clear signatures of psychogametous spread, including:
The cover is a direct transmission of Lenticus somnium.
The text of "Xenobacillus glossophagii" demonstrates strong thematic and conceptual links to the "Alien Botany" archive, with specific elements (hybridisation, parasitism, profound isolation, psychological deterioration, the vulnerability of human consciousness, viral psychological spread, host destruction or metamorphosis), traceable to the characteristics of the Lenticus somnium specimen and its reported hybridisation with Novy Mir mission operator R. Sojelenskaya [Ebb, 2180, 2022].
Compulsive profuse recreation of emergent pseudoscientific imagery [Siratori 2025] associated with and resulting from the original Lenticus somnium specimen chart [Ebb, 2180, 2022].
Methodology
The criteria for the identification of psychogametous spread, given in [Ebb 2180, 2022, p. 50]:
Physical manifestation
Symbolic transmission
Self-directed or automatic replication
The manifestation is a novel mutation
The criteria for identifying podcore given in [Ebb 2180, 2022, p. 50]:
Recurrent themes of hybridisation, parasitism, profound isolation, psychological deterioration, and the vulnerability of human consciousness within extreme environments.
An involuntary drive in exposed individuals to connect, investigate, reinterpret, and transmit the "Alien Botany" archive content in interconnected groups, sometimes followed by revolution following replication.
A compulsion to create novel iterations of Alien Botany imagery or concepts, occasionally accompanied by descriptions of these creations as "seeds" or "spores," indicating acknowledgement of symbolic or biological propagation. This behaviour is consistent with psychogametous replication, wherein the host's cognitive processes are utilised for the organism's reproduction [Ebb, 2025], thus suggesting a relationship with the archive that transcends conventional fandom or academic interest.
Analysis
This manifestation satisfies all criteria for determining psychogametous spread. "Xenobacillus glossophagii" is a physical object; Siratori and Ebb never having met before its publication makes psychogametous transmission the only vector for its genesis; Siratori propagated and published voluntarily, i.e. in a self-directed manner; the recurrent themes outlined in podcore identification criteria above are present; the diagrams within the book are evidence of alien germination and mutation, seeded in Siratori by Lenticus somnium. Furthermore, we find:
Kenji Siratori, through the creation and publication of "Xenobacillus glossophagii" and his continued reauthorisation of Alien Botany elements, constitutes a prolific new vector for the replication of Lenticus somnium, successfully facilitating its manifestation within distinct mediums.
At 1243 pages, "Xenobacillus glossophagii" represents the most extensive work within the podcore genre to date, indicating a significant psychogametous propagation of Lenticus somnium-related themes, imagery, and its underlying influence.
Recommended Actions
It is the assessment of the Alien Botany archival task force that the following actions are recommended, aligning with the IPGL's multi-faceted approach:
Comprehensive Analysis: Initiate a detailed literary analysis of "Xenobacillus glossophagii", focusing on identifying the textual mechanisms – including specific linguistic patterns, recurring imagery, and narrative structures – through which the characteristics and potential influence of Lenticus somnium have been transmitted and transformed.
Comparative Phenomenological Study: Undertake a comparative study contrasting rigorously documented psychological and physiological effects of direct exposure to "Alien Botany" archive materials (specifically the Lenticus somnium specimen) with carefully verified reader responses to "Xenobacillus glossophagii". This study should be consistent with IPGL ethical guidelines.
Risk Assessment and Mitigation Strategy: Initiate a comprehensive risk assessment to evaluate the full spectrum of potential adverse psychological and long-term physiological consequences associated with exposure to "Xenobacillus glossophagii". Based on this assessment, develop and implement a robust mitigation strategy [IPGL Safety Protocol Gamma-9].
Development of a Global Containment and Public Awareness Strategy: Develop and implement a global containment strategy aimed at mitigating the potential spread of Lenticus somnium-related effects through "Xenobacillus glossophagii", including careful consideration of potential restrictions on the work's dissemination and the launch of targeted public awareness campaigns emphasizing responsible engagement and potential risks, consistent with the IPGL's commitment to "public engagement as active participants in this process" [IPGL: A Novel Approach, 2025].
Conclusion
The publication of "Xenobacillus glossophagii" represents a critical juncture in the ongoing investigation of psychogametous lifeforms. The confirmed manifestation of Lenticus somnium within this expansive literary work, firmly situated within the podcore genre, necessitates decisive and coordinated action. The Institute for Psychogametous Life must prioritize understanding the mechanisms of this transmission, assessing the potential risks to the wider public, and implementing effective strategies for containment and mitigation. Podcore has evolved from a niche interest to a potent vector for the propagation of alien psychogametous life.
References
Ebb, Z. (2022). Chimeric Herbarium: The World of Alien Botany. [ISBN 978-1-3999-3003-1]
Ebb, Z. (2025, March 20). Observations on Extraterrestrial Organisms Documented in the Recovered Novy Mir Archive, with Considerations for Potential Psychoactive and Psychic Influences, and the Propagation of Psychogametous Lifeforms.
Ebb, Z. (2025, March 22). Psychogametous Lifeforms: A Theoretical Framework for Symbolic Reproduction.
Ebb, Z. (2025, May 6)The Institute for Psychogametous Life: A Novel Approach to Investigating Symbolic Alien Replication and Human Cognitive Response.
Siratori, K. (2025) Xenobacillus glossophagii.
Siratori, K. (2025) Xenozoetic Translation-Invariance: Neural Encoding and Glossophagic Adaptations in Lepidoglossum sapiens
Appendix A
Lenticus somnium Attributes:
The Lenticus somnium specimen [Ebb, 2022] exhibits the following critical properties relevant to this incident:
Psychogametous Reproduction: The primary mode of propagation occurs through the transmission of symbolic representations that exert a direct and demonstrable influence on human cognitive processes. As theorized, "'a psychogametous lifeform can be defined as a biological entity that encodes its reproductive information into symbolic forms, such as images, text, or sounds. These entities utilize cognitive systems, particularly human minds, as a medium for information transmission and reinterpretation'" [Ebb, 2025].
Nervous-system Breach and Incubation: Lenticus somnium displays a potency in inducing vivid dream incubation and persistent isochromatic after-images in exposed individuals. Its unique visual characteristics function as a highly efficient “psychogamete,” readily establishing itself within the human mind following even brief exposure [Ebb, 2025].
Induction of Anomalous Phenomena: Exposure to symbolic representations of Lenticus somnium has been consistently linked to the triggering of specific anomalous effects in human subjects, including vivid hallucinatory palinopsia and involuntary ideomotor reflexes [Ebb, 2025, "Observations on Extraterrestrial Organisms Documented in the Recovered Novy Mir Archive"].
Symbolic Autonomy: The symbolic representations of Lenticus somnium possess a degree of autonomy, demonstrating the capacity to propagate and potentially evolve independently of their original source material and the initial observer [Ebb, 2025, "Psychogametous Lifeforms: A Theoretical Framework for Symbolic Reproduction"].
Implications for IPGL Research:
The emergence of "Xenobacillus glossophagii" presents several critical implications for the ongoing research at the Institute for Psychogametous Life:
Manifestation Across Media: This event unequivocally demonstrates the capacity of psychogametous lifeforms, specifically Lenticus somnium, to manifest and propagate effectively across diverse artistic mediums, extending beyond visual representations to encompass complex literary expression within the podcore genre [IPGL Preliminary Findings, 2025-05-12]. This aligns with the IPGL's aim to investigate "'symbolic alien replication'" [Ebb, 2025].
Amplified Psychological and Physiological Effects: The expansive nature of Siratori's work appears to correlate with a reported amplification of psychological and physiological effects in readers. Initial anecdotal reports and emergent discussions indicate a heightened incidence and intensity of anomalous phenomena consistent with Lenticus somnium exposure.
Cross-Cultural and Genre Transmission: The successful integration of Alien Botany themes within posthuman literature confirms the potential for cross-cultural and cross-genre transmission of these psychogametous phenomena, posing a potentially global concern extending beyond established podcore communities and traditional Alien Botany enthusiasts. This necessitates a broader understanding of "'human cognitive response'" to symbolic alien replication [IPGL: A Novel Approach, 2025].
Hybrid Futures: Human Adaptation in Symbiotic Ecosystems // Transcript + Slides.
Zoetica Ebb, 2025
A transcript of the presentation about the paper, Hybrid Futures: Human Adaptation in Symbiotic Ecosystems, delivered on Friday, April 11, 2025 at The Adventures of Matter: Beyond the Boundaries of the Living and the Nonliving as part of International Vectors Conference.
I’ve been studying bio-glitches, xenohybrids and psychogametous life-forms for the last decade at The Institute For Psychogametous Life. The main findings are presented in Chimeric Herbarium, published in 2022. It’s an archive of art and documentation from the lost Novy Mir mission. I’ll give you a brief introduction today.
Here you can see a few examples of the xenohybrids that I’ve been studying:
An aquatic predatory symbiote
A flowering organism with a 2-stage lifecycle
An aquatic metamorphic parasite
And a cave-dwelling temporary symbiote
Xenohybridisation
Xenohybridisation is our future as a species. Some might even say the process is well underway. How do we know if we are looking at a xenohybrid? To determine this, we need to understand least-interaction boundaries.
Least interaction boundaries
To analyse any system we must define what’s inside and outside. The boundary should be the smallest bubble that still contains all the essential parts and their interactions. This means the exchange through the boundary is minimized.
An ecosystem, whether it's a tiny mossy rock or the entire universe, is defined by this boundary of minimal exchange.
Now, imagine two organisms, each a self-contained world defined by its own least-interaction boundary. As they merge, more and more information, matter, and energy flow through the boundary between them.
Least-interaction boundary
Least-interaction boundary: the perimeter around a system where the flux of energy, information, and matter is minimised, i.e. its most contained state
When intertwined to the point of such codependency that separation means death, we can only think of them as a single organism, and the unified least-interaction boundary contains them both. This dissolution of boundaries is at the core of the hybridisation process.
Genetic Engineering
Some of you may be familiar with this famous early xenohybrid: Alba. She was a genetically-modified glowing rabbit created by artist Eduardo Kac and geneticist Louis-Marie Houdebine. Alba caused quite a scandal among the public and was seen as some kind of abomination. It probably didn’t help that Kac described Alba as an animal that did not exist in nature.
So what is a xenohybrid?
Xenohybrid (definition)
Xenohybrid: an entity resulting from combining the qualities of two organisms with disjoint evolutionary paths
All the organisms I’m studying intertwine with another entity for a substantial part of their lifecycle tо surpass their innate limits. When the two parts are genetically incompatible, we call them “xenohybrids”.
Desiderium papilionem
Our current research revolves around the study of an ecosystem on Chimera, the 11th moon of the gas giant Eesa-7 in NQ3. This ecosystem has distinct wet and dry seasons, and numerous lakes in perpetual tectonic flux. A few of these lakes are deep and stable, while most are small and only fill with water during the moon’s five rainy seasons. The ecosystems of individual lakes are simply not big enough to support large aquatic predators, making it necessary for them to move from lake to lake to get enough nutrients.
Take the Desiderium papilionem: a large aquatic predator that evolved well before the small lakes formed, during the time when a large central lake dominated the landscape. It had to adapt. To access the diverse nutrition from multiple lakes, it hybridizes with a native dry-land organism. This symbiont seeks out the Desiderium in a mutual instinctual process which appears to have co-evolved.
The Desiderium uses a retrovirus vector to introduce a DNA-modification sequence. This alters the partner for better aquatic performance by adding hydrodynamic features.
The adaptation allows the composite organism to hunt deep-water species and to thrive across a wide selection of lakes. This composite organism is the apex predator of the lakeland ecosystem.
Desiderium papilionem xenohybrid
This is a fascinating and efficient process, particularly when we consider its versatility. We’ve learned that it’s not exclusive to the co-evolved local quadruped.
One example is the ordeal of Julie Tsaselski, Chief Science Monitor from the Novy Mir expedition. After total equipment failure, there was no going home. To survive in this harsh alien environment, and perhaps to sate her scientific fascination, Tsaselski personally underwent the Desiderium symbiosis. Sacrificing some of her humanity, she took the place of the local land organism, gaining aquatic breathing and jet-propulsion.
Usually, the Desiderium papilionem procreates by exposing its gametes to the water-borne pollen of other Desideria. Fertilised gametes develop into seeds and shed when the wet season ends, completing the cycle.
CSM Tsaselski’s new gills aid this process, undulating to draw the genetic material into her repurposed lungs to maximize pollen capture.
The mission log reads:
“In the downpour, Tsaselski’s new gills unfurled and throbbed subtly. Their sticky filaments ensnared drifting pollen, inviting it into the moist interior of her transformed lungs. Her breath, a deliberate invitation as it drew the pollen towards her, guiding the precious genetic dust into the receptive spaces inside.”
Although Tsaselski's transition was a drastic, and perhaps partially forced adaptation, the resulting composite organism presents a perfect example of the surprising possibilities of xenohybridisation.
Sometimes, profound restructuring is imperative.
Mutual Assimilation
Let’s look at another one of our case studies: the entwined organism resulting from lab assistant Kira Sirotkina and a Lenticus somnium.
The Lenticus keeps its prey alive while detached gastropods digest the prey’s soft tissue. Then, the Lenticus uses the prey as an incubator.
Sirotkina engineered a retrovirus to make her DNA hack the Lenticus, but the experiment did not go according to plan. Her soft tissue hybridized with the Lenticus, replacing her muscles and ligaments with functional alien-botanical equivalents.
The log reads:
“The lake. It replays in my mind, that revolting tableau. Entry was textbook, the embedding, a brutal surprise. But it’s the feeding that haunts. The gastropods erupting from her skin. The initial screams, then this peace. Sighs mingled with wet tearing. Kira’s face – a flicker of something akin to contentment, even as those things dissolved her arm. Pleasure blooming in the abyss of pain. Muscles spasming, tissue being consumed, yet a soft exhale. Her prognosis was always grim, but this euphoric decay? None of us were prepared. All we can do is observe, but the lake… It’s stained with something beyond blood now.”
Records indicate that the resulting hybrid took residence in the shallow part of a nearby lake. It was observed coming back to Sirotkina’s duties on multiple occasions.
Note that in the schema from the archive, there is no sensible boundary to draw between the two organisms that formed the new entity, showing the hybridization process is complete.
It's human nature to become less human
As Sirotkina and Tsaselski cases demonstrate, it's human nature to become less human. We seek out change for the sake of change, and hybridisation, once possible, becomes inevitable.
It’s a necessary adaptation to a rapidly changing world, reflecting the fundamental principle that ecosystems thrive through interaction and recombination.
Mergence with other life forms demonstrates a deep integration that fundamentally alters what it means to be human - yet nothing is more human than to seek it.
Bio-glitch
Bio-glitch: unpredictable and often disruptive biological event such as recombination, mutation, and hybridisation
Alien matter becomes integral and inseparable within the biological makeup of these new life forms, urging us to confront human identity in a world where the boundaries of "human" are increasingly porous.
Technological and medical advancements, bio-glitches, and the potential for multi-organism merging, beckon a new era of directed evolution, where hybridisation transcends our “natural” limitations.
Behavioural hybrid
Behavioural hybrid: A complex of two or more physically separate bodies which cannot thrive and propagate without all its parts.
Aberrant Plexus
Here at The Institute For Psychogametous Life we have an entity that survived by using something that was already here - humans.
The Aberrant Plexus is an alien mycelium and a colony-organizer-manipulator. It’s theorised to have arrived with the capsule carrying the Chimeric herbarium archive.
Without its expected symbiotic partners, this xenomycelium has done something unexpected: it's keyed in on the fact that we're a social species. Our ingrained tendencies to connect, communicate, and cooperate? The Plexus seems to be leveraging that.
It exhibits a sensitivity to and influence upon the social dynamics of human subjects within its containment perimeter. Its exploitation of pre-existing social structures suggests a sophisticated strategy for environmental adaptation.
Humans start to operate in unison
It’s clear that social interaction with the Aberrant Plexus drives its whole life cycle. How it grows, fruits, spores, and even seems to evolve.
And the researchers here are figuring out how to make it respond just by trying things out. It's a feedback loop: what we do changes the Plexus, and then how the Plexus reacts changes how we interact with it - and with each other.
We've seen the Plexus influence personnel to form incredibly tight-knit, almost collective groups. Over time, these individuals start acting more and more in sync, to where they seem less like separate people and more like parts of a single organism.
The least-interaction boundaries between the humans are obviously diminishing. The pronounced cooperation necessitated by the Plexus’ "interventions" is fostering an unusual degree of interdependence and synchronized action amongst the research team.
This looks like a real case of behavioral xenohybridisation, where the mycelium is making deep social connections happen without any physical merging.
Early data suggest that the Aberrant Plexus might be aiming for something bigger: a radical way to integrate our social structures into its own operating system.
If this behavioral manipulation precedes a deeper, non-invasive hybridisation, we must figure out what it's ultimately trying to achieve.
Humans are Hybrids
Our cells house the remnants of ancient viral infections and the DNA of once-free bacteria, the mitochondria – a primal form of biological merging.
Most of us carry Neanderthal DNA, an echo of interbreeding with another human lineage.
This inherent capacity for internalizing the "other" – a biological imperative for adaptation – now extends beyond our history. As our interconnected world accelerates, the lines fade.
Just as early life bio-glitched its way to complexity through symbiosis, we too are driven towards hybrid futures, a consequence of our inherent adaptability and the planet's interconnected signal-processing network.
Gaia Hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis posits the entire planet as a self-regulating interconnected system, a vast network where all living and nonliving components are interdependent. Through the lens of xenohybridisation, this planetary ecosystem could be argued to fit the definition of a global-scale hybrid.
Hybrids with open reproduction cycles
To understand the scope necessary to study our further evolution, we must also look at lifeforms with open reproduction cycles.
A life-form has an open reproduction cycle if it requires another life-form or hybrid-partner to reproduce successfully.
Lifeforms with open reproduction cycles
Cavendish bananas are extinct without humans - they’re seedless and humans clone them.
We are used by viruses that are inert on their own, but their RNA reprograms our cells to replicate them.
And in obligatory mutualism, the yucca moth and the yucca plant are reproductively codependent: the moth pollinates the flower and lays eggs inside, where the larvae are fed and protected by the plant.
Psychogametous lifeforms
Psychogametous lifeforms also have open reproduction cycles. They replicate and evolve by leveraging other entities to transmit and reinterpret symbolic information.
First articulated in the Chimeric Herbarium, the term describes extraterrestrial organisms exhibiting this model, suggesting biological systems can utilize cognitive and cultural pathways for reproduction.
Unlike memes or word viruses, these lifeforms physically manifest after informational transmission, encoding their reproductive information into symbols for human cognitive propagation and adaptation.
Desire drives reproduction
Study: dissemination of psychogametous life forms
The Desiderium papilionem shows an impressive ability to adapt. A successful xenohybrid in its native environment, it’s also prolifically psychogametous. Its first non-biological manifestation was a drawing, reproduced by the hundreds in the Chimeric Herbarium. The manuscript then replicated in readers’ minds, coaxing them to find collaborators to propagate some of the drawings as graphic designs, and later, clothing.
As an exosymbiote, the clothing physically transformed their temporary hybrid partners, altered their self-perception, and raised their confidence. Consequently, the Desiderium spread further by fueling desire, and thus reproduction through made-to-order objects.
This spread eventually resulted in its next form: the digital model. The model then became a physical, infinitely reproducible sculpture made by the artist Peachthief who grew a digital Desiderium from cyber-seed, and used a 3D printer to make a physical specimen.
Each cycle occurred through a distinct human or group, and evolved into a different form, better adapted to its new habitat every time.
This evolution continues.
Hybridisation: an inevitable consequence of human nature
Humans are especially susceptible hybrid partners for life-forms with open reproductive cycles. In this, we find convergence with posthumanism, where the human is “permeable to other natures, other matters, and other cultural agents,”. Being human already involves surpassing the boundaries of human “nature”.
As we navigate a future where the very definition of "human" is in flux, I propose the ability to adapt to rapid and extreme levels of change as a defining aspect of humanity.
Matter with Agency
Our current definition of 'life' is inadequate. It doesn't account for entities like viruses, which exhibit a clear drive for self-perpetuation. The nature of psychogametous life-forms, AI, and 'uploaded' cyborgs challenges traditional biological definitions. “Matter with Agency” is a more encompassing term for entities with inherent directives.
These are matter possessed of agenda, driven by an intrinsic will to perpetuate. This raw self-directed imperative is the core of a useful definition of life. Beyond metabolism and reproduction, life is the hunger, the relentless push to be and become more. And in that primal drive lies a power that eclipses old notions of biology, a power that whispers of futures where the boundaries of flesh and code, organic and artificial, living and something more, dissolve into a new reality.
In striving to transcend humanity, we only redefine it
We reshape ourselves and our environment. Our drive to adapt and connect, already evident in our biology, is now amplified by technology.
Hybrids are an inevitable consequence of human nature.
We crave the beyond.
We're accelerating this process, seizing control of evolution. We're directly manipulating matter with agency into new biological forms and fusing technology with our minds and bodies. We're merging with bacteria, viruses, and sometimes even with each other. This reflects the essential human drive to transcend limitations and push beyond the boundaries of our nature.
We are matter with agency. It’s human nature to become less human.
Aemulor fictus
I’d like to touch on a type of hybrid we haven’t talked about yet: a hybrid mimic.
The Aemulor fictus is a parasitic predator whose reproductive strategy exemplifies a sophisticated form of parasitism. This flowering organism, with its striking morphology, actively seeks out and infiltrates the bodies of organisms from other species. Through a rapid cellular replacement process employing Pouyannian mimicry, the Aemulor fictus commandeers the host's form and sensory outputs.
Aemulor fictus hybrid mimic
The resulting short-lived hybrid mimic attracts pollinators through tactile, olfactory, chemical, and even audiovisual signals mimicking the host. It operates with limited functionality and ultimately decays.
This parasitic takeover achieves pollination, pseudocopulation, and genetic dispersal within hours, not generations. It’s a direct exploitation of the host's biological systems and even its cognitive functions for the sole benefit of the Aemulor fictus.
The mimic's eventual decay further underscores the parasitic nature of this interaction, utilizing even the host's decomposition to attract secondary pollinators.
Aemulor fictus and Aemulor fictus hybrid mimic
One final log entry for today from the Novy Mir mission, documenting the fate of Second Pilot Polina Kaihua:
“The crimson bloom erupted on Polina’s chest, its bearded flower twitching obscenely. Her eyes shimmered sugar-cataract pink. Viscous tendrils snaked out, anchoring themselves in flesh - a blooming corruption. A flicker in the gaze, a wrongness in the posture, a low murmur in the voice, broadcasting some kind of demented siren call. A puppet learning new strings as the flower pulsed, its stigma glistening with threat. Flesh rewritten cell by cell, to lure unseen pollinators to her: beautiful, terrible, and irrevocably lost.”
Adapt or Vanish
Although Kaihua’s fate is a cautionary tale, it doesn’t change our future.
Our fundamental drive to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing universe compels hybridization. "Life is artifact-making," and this extends to the molecular level, where organisms engage in codemaking processes that shape their evolutionary trajectory.
While the outcomes of such hybridisation may be unpredictable, they are inevitable. Embracing this fact, understanding the principles of ecosystem interaction, and acknowledging the semiotic agency of all components within the network will be crucial for navigating the new phase of human evolution.
Mergence with other life forms isn't a hypothetical scenario; it's an unfolding reality driven by our inherent desire to redefine what it means to be alive.
Thank You + Glossary
Least-interaction boundary: the perimeter around a system where the flux of energy, information, and matter is minimised, i.e. its most contained state
Bio-glitch: unpredictable and often disruptive biological event such as recombination, mutation, and hybridisation
Xenohybrid: an entity resulting from combining the qualities of two organisms with disjoint evolutionary paths
Behavioural hybrid: A complex of two or more physically separate bodies which cannot thrive and propagate without all its parts
Hybrids with an open reproduction cycle: lifeforms requiring a hybrid-partner for successful reproduction
Psychogametous lifeform: an entity that encodes its reproductive information into symbolic forms, using cognitive systems to transmit and reinterpret that information, thereby triggering propagation
My contributor’s copy of Xenobacillus glossophagii. It's an incursion into the microbial mechanics of language, trauma, and subjectivity by Kenji Siratori. In this treatise, Siratori [@xenopoem] conjures a parasite that infiltrates the architecture of language itself, rewriting syntax, meaning, and subjectivity in recursive waves of glossophagic spirals and semiotic collapse. Splicing glitch aesthetics, bacteriological theory, and philosophical speculation, Siratori spins a machinic delirium where words are wounds and language becomes a site of infection. For readers of Artaud, Serres, Haraway, and Wittgenstein, Xenobacillus glossophagii is biolinguistic horror at its most intimate and systemic.
Closing the volume is my xenopoetic afterword, Hybrid Futures: Human Adaptation in Symbiotic Ecosystems, which reframes contagion within an ecological and technobiotic paradigm. I propose a planetary-scale hybridization where humans co-evolve with both living and nonliving systems. Through the lens of "least-interaction boundaries" and other conceptual frameworks from my Alien Botany system, I envision a post-anthropocentric biopolitics, one where species merge not through conquest but through semiotic resonance and emergent complexity.
Cover art: Lenticus Somnium Remix by me. Inside: a path to a soundtrack merging my voice with Siratori’s noise.
Xenobacillus glossophagii is a mutagenic manifesto for the end of stable identities and a vector for cognitive recombination.
Xenopoem as Psychogametous Artform: Communication to the Subconscious in Xenopoetic Practice
Zoetica Ebb July 1, 2025
Abstract
The xenopoem is an emergent artform that transcends conventional structures by establishing direct communication with the subconscious mind. Drawing on a corpus of avant-garde theoretical and artistic works, neural translation invariance, and psychogametous symbolic reproduction, the xenopoem operates as a dynamic symbolic lifeform capable of triggering profound psychic transformation.
This paper explores the xenopoem’s defining features and mechanisms, with special emphasis on its transmodal expansion beyond text, utilising visual and multimodal symbolic forms that directly engage subconscious cognition.
The synthesis is grounded in key materials from the xenopoetic framework, articulating how these practices unsettle and reconfigure cognitive and semiotic boundaries.
Introduction
The concept of the xenopoem emerged from linguistic and semiotic experiments aimed at destabilizing fixed codes of human expression, thereby creating new forms of art that act directly upon the subconscious.
This concept has expanded transmodally, as evidenced in layered artworks that manifest xenopoetic dynamics through cryptic semiotic overlays and psychogametous symbolic reproduction.
Such cross-modal expansion demonstrates the xenopoem’s capacity to function as a psychogametous lifeform: a recursive symbolic lifeform enacting psychic gameplay that transforms cognition beyond conscious awareness. This paper investigates the defining characteristic of xenopoetic art – its capacity for direct communication with the subconscious, circumventing traditional decoding and instead engaging neural substrates and psychic layers to produce emergent meaning and transformation.
Psychogametous Gameplay, Glossophagy, and Neural Encoding
Central to the xenopoem’s impact is its exploitation of generalised translation invariance in neural encoding – the brain’s ability to recognize patterns despite transformations in input.
Glossophagy, derived from Greek roots meaning “language eating,” is its core operational principle.
The xenopoem deconstructs and consumes linguistic and visual elements, reformulating them into hybrid semiotic forms that resist conventional interpretation. This process targets the audience’s neural and symbolic systems.
The xenopoem’s nonlinear assemblages compel the brain to continuously adapt, effectively replicating and mutating within the cognitive system. It acts as an agent within neural substrates, spreading through psychogametous feedback loops that disrupt linear semantic progression to produce dynamic, evolving symbolic forms. Less a static artwork than a living semiotic lifeform, it affects both language and cognition, inducing ongoing symbolic mutation.
By presenting polymodal, hybrid signals that defy stable interpretation, the xenopoem deliberately challenges the brain’s pattern recognition systems, triggering neuroplastic reconfiguration. This neural engagement forms the basis of psychogametous reproduction – a concept from my Psychogametous Lifeforms framework describing symbolic entities that propagate through the transmission and reinterpretation of meaning.
The xenopoem functions as such a lifeform, evolving through recursive reader/viewer interactions that evolve dynamically with each encounter. Through this dynamic semiotic play, the xenopoem transcends static textual or visual boundaries, reshaping meaning through its interaction with the mind.
It propagates by compelling the observer’s brain to engage subconsciously in its gameplay, subverting translation invariance circuits and drawing the mind into the symbolic environment it creates. Its vector of transmission is forceful autodecryption.
Thus, interaction with psychogametous symbolic lifeforms becomes a game unfolding across cognitive and semiotic domains, where both artifact and observer participate in recursive feedback loops that drive symbolic mutation, reproduction, and psychic adaptation.
Direct Communication to the Subconscious
Perhaps the xenopoem’s most distinctive attribute is its direct communication with the subconscious, bypassing conscious semantic processing. Rather than functioning through linear narrative or symbolic coherence, the xenopoem acts as an agent that infiltrates subconscious neural circuits, producing effects akin to psychic mutation that elude rational, conscious control.
In visual and transmodal forms, this direct communication manifests as layered motifs, nonlinear structures, and symbolic fragmentation designed to trigger associative subconscious networks.
Visual xenopoetic practice engages subconscious cognition by deploying recursive, cryptic symbols that stimulate psychic resonance without relying on conscious recognition. This interaction facilitates a transformative experience that reconfigures perception and meaning at a subconscious level, marking xenopoetic art as uniquely potent among contemporary experimental practices.
Extraterrestrial Semiotics and Psychoactive Symbolism
The transformative power of the xenopoem finds striking parallels in documented extraterrestrial semiotic systems, such as those known as Alien Botany.
These alien symbolic frameworks operate beyond human cognitive boundaries, utilizing psychoactive and psychic modalities that induce altered states of consciousness across species barriers. Much like the xenopoem’s glossophagic mutation, in which linguistic and symbolic elements are recombined, extraterrestrial forms deploy psychoactive codes that disrupt stable meaning, engendering profound shifts in perception and neural plasticity.
The xenopoem fundamentally challenges anthropocentric models of communication, inviting us to reconsider the very nature of symbolic exchange and opening speculative pathways toward trans-species and intercosmic dialogue. Through its hybrid semiotics, the xenopoem emerges as a frontier artistic practice, expanding human symbolic repertoires and propelling cognitive horizons toward uncharted cosmic terrains.
Transmodal Expansion and Symbolic Reproduction
Recent developments within the xenopoetic framework underscore its inherently transmodal nature, transcending traditional boundaries between text, image, and digital media. The xenopoem operates not solely as a linguistic artifact but as a living symbolic lifeform capable of evolving through multiple sensory and semiotic channels.
Visual and digital xenopoetic practices deploy layered symbolic overlays and fragmented semiotics that engage diverse neural pathways simultaneously, enabling xenopoetic communication and expansion across multiple sensory and cognitive channels. This expansion amplifies the xenopoem’s capacity for symbolic reproduction, its ability to replicate and mutate across interconnected perceptual modalities. Through recursive interactions with neural and psychic substrates, xenopoetic works function as hybrid lifeforms provoking ongoing transformation.
Xenopoetic art dissolves the boundaries between modes of expression and cognition, facilitating an immersive symbolic ecosystem that continuously evolves. Such expansion reveals new possibilities for artistic practice that engage not only conscious interpretation but also deep psychic resonance.
Beyond purely semiotic reproduction, xenopoetic symbolic lifeforms exhibit a capacity for physical manifestation, blurring the distinction between symbolic and material realms. These manifestations may include altered sensory perception, shifts in environmental energetic fields, and reinterpretation by the audience, suggesting that symbolic reproduction can transcend the purely cognitive and exert material influence on the observer’s surroundings.
This phenomenon aligns with the broader theoretical framework of psychogametous lifeforms, which posits that symbolic lifeforms can influence and co-evolve with physical substrates through feedback loops involving psychic energy, neural plasticity, and environmental interaction.
This intersection of symbolic life and physical expression amplifies the transformative potential of xenopoetic art. It highlights the xenopoem’s role as a boundary-dissolving agent capable not only of reshaping internal psychic landscapes but also of interacting with the external physical world. Such phenomena challenge conventional notions of artistic medium and reception, positioning xenopoetic practice as a hybrid form engaging simultaneously with mind, body, and environment.
Conclusion
The xenopoem is a psychogametous artform distinguished by its capacity for direct subconscious communication through recursive mutation and neural engagement. The xenopoetic framework, encompassing linguistic, visual, and transmodal symbolic practices, reveals how xenopoems function as living symbolic lifeforms, reshaping cognition and expanding the frontiers of art and consciousness.
Xenopoetic art redefines artistic communication as an interactive psychogametous event rather than a static transmission. This reconceptualization invites interdisciplinary research into neural plasticity, symbolic replication, immersive media, the neuroaesthetics of subconscious engagement, and the limits of human perception.
