Plate I · The Dome of Pleasure, as Observed from the North Terrace

xanadu.science

An institute for the sciences that have not yet dreamt themselves awake.

Founded in a year that refuses to be counted. Fellows in perpetual residence. Correspondence welcomed by any post that can cross an imaginary meridian.

↓ descend through eleven strata

Plate II · The Five Rivers

Five rivers run through the institute

Each discipline is a current. Fellows choose one, then allow themselves to be carried sideways into the others.

Oneirics The physics of dreams; the metrology of sleep. Apocryphal Cartography Atlases of places whose coastlines are rumor. Subjunctive Physics Laws that would have held, had the question been asked differently. Color Morphology The shape a hue takes when it is dreamt of at dusk. Hypothetical Linguistics A grammar of the thing almost said.

Plate III · The Mnemonic Garden, a grid of portholes

The Mnemonic Garden

Twelve portholes gaze into twelve impossibilities. The objects do not rest; they rearrange themselves while you blink.

close

Reading · Fragment from the Catalogue

Plate IV · Fellows in Residence, Spring Term

Fellows in residence

Each fellow holds a question rather than a title. The questions are renewed annually; the answers, rarely.

Fellow · Oneirics

I. Velázquez-Moreau

What color is a dream after the dreamer forgets it?

she keeps a jar of them ↘

Fellow · Apocryphal Cartography

D. Okonkwo-Pálsson

How does one chart a coastline that exists only in rumor?

his atlases weigh too much ←

Fellow · Subjunctive Physics

N. al-Saffar

Does gravity obey a verb that has not yet been conjugated?

she is teaching it to →

Fellow · Color Morphology

B. Tchaikovskaya-Ng

What shape does cerulean assume when it remembers being green?

the answer is a comma ↙

Fellow · Hypothetical Linguistics

R. Farkas-del-Monte

In what tense does one speak of a sentence one has not said?

he answers only in footnotes ←

Visiting Fellow · Metrology

O. Svensson-Achebe

Can one measure longitude at midnight? Should one?

the chronometer disagrees ↘

Plate V · Expeditions in Progress, Forty-First Term

Current expeditions

Departures are staggered. Arrivals are not guaranteed. The institute considers both outcomes acceptable.

  1. iv · mmxxvi

    The Measurement of Longitude at Midnight

    Three fellows aboard a vessel whose timekeeper runs, by agreement, one hour slow. A report is promised upon the first sighting of dawn.

  2. v · mmxxvi

    An Atlas of Unrepeatable Events

    Cartographers, photographers, a stenographer. Each page is an instance that cannot be refilmed. The atlas will, by its nature, be published once.

  3. vi · mmxxvi

    Subjunctive Weather in the Outer Marches

    Recording the precipitation that would have fallen, had the cloud arrived. Instruments: one barometer, one wish.

  4. vii · mmxxvi

    On the Migration of Imaginary Fauna

    A survey of species whose range is defined by the belief in their existence. Early data: the range fluctuates with moonlight.

  5. viii · mmxxvi

    A Census of the Colors One Cannot Name

    Two linguists, one painter. Their instrument is the hesitation before the first syllable of the name.

Plate VI · The Library of Unwritten Books, East Wall

The Library of Unwritten Books

Eight hundred and twelve titles, shelved by the century in which they will not have been written.

→ slide the shelf to browse

A Metaphysics of Tuesday del-Monte
The Taxonomy of Imaginary Rivers Okonkwo-Pálsson
On the Translation of Silence Farkas
An Essay on the Smell of Thunder Tchaikovskaya-Ng
The Colour of the Hour Between Two Velázquez-Moreau
Notes Toward a Grammar of Weather al-Saffar
Cartographies of the Slow Drowning Svensson-Achebe
The Physics of Unanswered Letters N. al-Saffar
An Unreliable History of Ink B. Tchaikovskaya-Ng
Poems Written at a Latitude That Does Not Exist Anonymous
A Concordance of Dreams I Have Not Had I. Velázquez-Moreau
On the Architecture of Forgetting D. Okonkwo-Pálsson

Plate VII · Field Notes, Recovered from the Banks of the Alph

Field Notes from the Alph

1 The measurement was taken at an hour that did not exist on that particular day, by an instrument that required the observer to hold their breath. — re-read at dusk

2 The river did not appear where it was charted. I suspect the chart; the river has been reliable for centuries. It is only the coast that wanders, and chiefly at night. check the tide-glass ↗

3 I spent four hours attempting to name a color that kept reminding me of my grandmother's voice. I have left the jar on the sill. The color may name itself by morning.

4 The fellow from Subjunctive Physics insists that gravity operates in the imperfect tense near the library. I have not been able to falsify this claim, though I have been dropping small objects all afternoon. they fall slowly

5 A letter arrived addressed to someone who will live here in forty years. I have filed it under Correspondence, Proleptic. The institute has never lost a letter, only misfiled one by a few decades.

6 I have begun to suspect the Alph is not a river but a long and patient sentence. The pauses are the shallows, and the meaning gathers at the oxbow bends. I will report further when it reaches a comma. or a semicolon, perhaps

Plate VIII · Instrument Gallery, Select Items from the Collection

Instruments of the Institute

Calibrated against hypotheses rather than reality. Sensitive to the observer's mood.

Fig. i

The Oneiroscope

Records the angle of dream incidence, in degrees past midnight.

Fig. ii

The Chronoseptum

A membrane between the hour that was and the hour that should have been.

Fig. iii

The Paradox Ammeter

Measures the current flow of a contradiction; resolves it by return post.

Fig. iv

The Mnemoscope

Renders a memory as a pair of intersecting shadows, for comparison.

Fig. v

The Prismograph

Splits a thought into its constituent hesitations and records each separately.

Fig. vi

The Subjunctive Compass

Points toward the direction one might have taken, had one dared.

Plate IX · Dispatches from the Institute, Spring Term

Dispatches

Essay · on dreaming

"The mind, asleep, borrows the color of its surroundings, and returns it slightly altered by morning."

In the seventh week of the sleep-color survey, we observed that the dream of a particular fellow began to leak teal pigment onto her pillow. The pigment was stable under laboratory light and volatile in direct sun. We have catalogued it as No. 14: corrected-teal, pending further episodes.

— I. Velázquez-Moreau

Note · on cartography

"The map and the territory agreed to disagree, and so we shaded the dispute in ochre."

One ought not to draw an imaginary coastline on a clear day. The light is too assertive; the ink remembers it was once mineral and refuses to behave. We recommend charting such shorelines at dusk, when the ink is willing to lie a little.

— D. Okonkwo-Pálsson

Inquiry · on instruments

"Every measurement is a question posed to a reality that is under no obligation to answer."

The paradox ammeter has begun to report in rhymed couplets. We are uncertain whether this indicates a new sensitivity or a known instability. For now, we have transcribed its findings and filed them with Hypothetical Linguistics.

— N. al-Saffar

Plate X · Selected Correspondence, Fellow-to-Fellow

Correspondence

Letters travel by ordinary post, but occasionally by the longer route.

Colophon

xanadu.science was set in Cormorant Garamond, Spectral, Caveat, and IBM Plex Mono, upon a vellum the color of moth-wings, by a compositor who was not certain the book existed until it was printed.

Correspondence may be sent to any post that can cross an imaginary meridian. Replies arrive, on average, at the hour most useful to the recipient.

MMXXVI · The Institute for the Sciences That Have Not Yet Dreamt Themselves Awake · all notes are drafts

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