# The Multi-lens — Story ### Source of Truth · Hamilton 2092 Guidebook > **Lineage.** This artifact first appeared in Term 7, *Experiential Design Thesis I · Design Experiment 2 · "Excavating 2125: Speculating the Public Realm"* (Alejandro Hernandez Guzman, Angela Larocci, James March · Sheridan College · 2025.11.19). The thesis horizon has since pulled to 2092 under *Speculating the Tenth / Excavating 2292* — the Multi-lens is carried forward from that earlier provocation as one of four excavated artifacts. > **Entity discipline.** The Multi-lens is one of four distinct entities in the 2092 universe. Do not conflate: the **Orenda Network** (mycelium + OI field), **OrgoBots** (mobile agents), the **Orenda Coil** (household artifact), and the **Multi-lens** (this artifact — perception glasses). Each has its own source-of-truth file. --- ## 1. Canonical Copy > **Note:** Term 7 copy below describes the *prototype chassis* — a bulky chest-strap / handheld device built as the 2025 provotype. See §3 for the canonical 2092 glasses form that supersedes it in-world. **Title:** The Multi-Lens **Subheading:** Simulating Non-Human Perspectives The Multi-Lens is a wearable kinetic device designed to physically manifest speculative ecological lenses. In response to extreme population density and the need to redefine public space, this artifact allows the wearer to simulate non-human perspectives. The mechanism is built around a 3D-printed chassis with dual-compartment cylinders for each eye. Functioning as a parametric design tool rather than a standard filter-based application, it uses a gear-driven system that allows these compartments to rotate independently. By turning the clockwork mechanisms, the user alters their perspective through different optical layers, overlaying the industrial reality of Hamilton with unseen ecological narratives. The device relies on precise print-in-place tolerances produced on a Bambu Lab P1S, ensuring the complex gears turn smoothly as a single unit to communicate grounded optimism through physical interaction. --- ## 2. Provocation context (excavated from Term 7) **Research question:** > "How can physical, speculative artifacts function as tools to communicate a 'Grounded Optimism' in the face of Ontario's looming infrastructure collapse?" > — after Malpass (2017). **The crisis this artifact answers — Crisis 1: The Population Bomb** - **Fact:** Ontario population projected to grow by 6.6 million by 2046 *(Ontario Ministry of Finance, 2024)*. - **Implication:** Density will force us to redefine **"Public Space"** — perhaps to include non-human residents. The Multi-Lens is the direct provotype response to Crisis 1. In the guidebook structure, this places it primarily in **Ch 04 Civic** — Crisis 1 is its originating provocation, and the redefinition of public space to include non-human residents is the civic shift the lens exists to make visible. **Philosophical grounding (Term 7):** - Indigenous Stewardship *(Dish With One Spoon)* - More-than-Human - Animal Aided Design (ADD) --- ## 3. How it works — what you see through it (canonical 2092 form) In 2092 the Multi-lens is a **pair of glasses**, not a chassis. A standard pair of glasses in 2092 grows to your fit — bespoke-by-biology, OI-matched to the wearer. The Multi-lens is the variant that *allows you to see it all.* | Element | Behaviour | |---|---| | **Form** | Lightweight eyewear. Light-wear, not strapped on. | | **Fit** | Grows to the wearer's face — the frame is biologically matched, not sized off a rack. | | **Activation** | Two OI nodes sit on the temples. On activation, the nodes develop instantly onto the structure of the glasses, matching the wearer's brow. | | **Optical surface** | A holographic lens reflection (OI-rendered) drops into the lens plane. The parametric optical layers activate on this reflection. | | **Interaction** | Glance, gaze, and gesture — no clockwork, no app. The OI handles layer selection as an extension of attention. | | **Output** | Overlays the human-visible Hamilton with layers of non-human, networked, and historical reality — see §3.1. | ### 3.1 Parametric optical layers (canonical set) 1. **Non-human visual spectra** — lichen UV, bee polarized light, bird tetrachromacy. See through other organisms' eyes. 2. **Orenda Network field** — the hidden mycelium + OI activity, rendered like a 5G-coverage heatmap. 3. **OrgoBot swarm activity** — live positional and chemical work of OrgoBots on-site. 4. **Historical excavation** — what this site was in 2025 (and other selected years). ### 3.2 Open source + extensibility The Multi-lens is **open source.** Anyone can author new views. This gives wearers access to a widening set of perspectives and a **seamless connection to other sites around the world** — a user in Hamilton can toggle to the view from another city's Orenda-equivalent. This is a *civic property* of the device, not a consumer feature: the lens belongs to the commons the way a library or a public square does. ### 3.3 Alternate manifestations The canonical form is the glasses. Secondary forms exist: - **Camera** — handheld capture, same layer stack. - **Screen** — static/mounted rendering. - **City-scale** — an OI panel ringing the city that uses **gel mycelium as a holographic interface** and doubles as a public wayfinding system. Together, the personal (glasses) and the civic (gel-mycelium panels) mean a wearer walks through Hamilton seeing both private and public layers simultaneously. --- ## 4. Who uses it Everyone. The Multi-lens is personal wear — standard-issue eyewear in 2092 grows to the wearer, and the Multi-lens is the variant that unlocks the full layer stack. Because the device is open source and civic, the city-scale gel-mycelium panels render the same information publicly for those without (or between) pairs. Named users include field coordinators like Nia Crosby (Sector NM) who rely on it professionally, residents who use it in public space, and children learning to read the Orenda field. --- ## 5. Origin — how it was invented Built in 2025 as a Term 7 physical provotype (see PDF: *Excavating 2125* · p.18 · "Simulating non-human perspectives"). The 2025 artifact was the bulky chassis — the ancestor form, preserved in thesis history. In the fiction, the Multi-lens evolves as Public Space is redefined to include non-human residents, miniaturizing from chest-strap hardware into the standard 2092 eyewear format as OI and gel-mycelium fabrication matured. It becomes a tool for living alongside organisms whose perception of the same street is radically different from the human default. --- ## 6. What you see as an ecosystem (the user's framing) The Multi-lens makes it visible that humans, the Orenda Network, OrgoBots, lichens, and pollinators are one ecosystem. Through the lens you see yourself inside the communication — not looking *at* the field but *in* it. A shift of attention moves you from your own view to a lichen's, then to the Orenda's signal-flow, then to the OrgoBots' chemical map. Wearing the lens is the act of *listening.* --- ## 7. Relationship to the other three entities | Entity | Relationship to the Multi-lens | |---|---| | **Orenda Network** (mycelium + OI field) | Primary subject of one of the optical layers — the Multi-lens is how the Network becomes visible to the human eye. | | **OrgoBots** (mobile bio-fabrication agents) | A second layer shows their swarm activity; you can watch OrgoBots at work on a brownfield in real time. | | **Orenda Coil** (household artifact) | Through the lens, a Coil renders as an Orenda-field signature — the household scale of the same Network the lens reveals at street and city scale. | --- ## 8. Material form & visual signature ### 8.a Canonical 2092 form — the glasses - Lightweight eyewear, worn like any standard 2092 pair. - Frame grows to the wearer — OI-matched, bespoke-by-biology. - Two **OI nodes** on the temples; on activation they develop instantly onto the glasses' structure and match the wearer's brow. - Lens surface renders an **OI-generated holographic reflection** — the parametric layers live here. - Paired civic form: **gel-mycelium holographic panels** around the city, acting as both interface and wayfinding system for those not currently wearing a pair. ### 8.b Term 7 archival prototype (2025) The ancestor form, preserved as thesis history. Superseded in-world by the 2092 glasses. - Black plastic chassis, rectangular pack with rounded corners. - Large circular lens on front, transparent outer ring with red inner ring / yellow accent knobs. - Shoulder-strap version (Term 7 photo 2) — wearable like a chest-worn camera. - Compact handheld version (Term 7 photo 1) — stereoscope-like. - Dual-compartment cylinders, one per eye, gear-driven clockwork; each compartment rotates independently. - Print-in-place construction on a Bambu Lab P1S — gears turn smoothly as a single unit. --- ## 9. Voice / field-note seed > **TODO.** One line a 2092 character says the first time they hand a Multi-lens to a visitor. Needs to sit in Nia Crosby's register (or another named character). Working seed, not canonical: *"The standard pair grows to your fit — this one lets you see it all. Put them on."* --- ## 10. Citations / references (from Term 7) - Government of Canada. (2024). *Hamilton Harbour Area of Concern.* Canada.ca. - Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO). (2024). *Annual Planning Outlook: Ontario's Electricity System Needs.* - Kumar, A., & Holuszko, M. E. (2023). *E-waste generation in Canada.* University of Waterloo. - Malpass, M. (2017). *Critical Design in Context: History, Theory, and Practice.* Bloomsbury Academic. - Ontario Ministry of Finance. (2024). *Ontario Population Projections Update, 2023–2046.* Queen's Printer for Ontario. Additional grounding references to add when defined: - Etuaptmumk / Two-Eyed Seeing (Elder Albert Marshall, Mi'kmaq) — if the lens is to carry Indigenous perceptual lineage, this citation should anchor it. - Animal Aided Design sources (named in Term 7 philosophy). --- ## 11. The three design insights the Multi-lens carries (from Term 7 conclusion) 1. **Tangibility** — physical artifacts trigger *suspension of disbelief*. 2. **Ambiguity** — the *uncanny valley* forces active interpretation. 3. **Narrative** — *data + speculation = public engagement.* The 2092 glasses inherit all three: tangibility through worn, bespoke-grown eyewear; ambiguity through layers that render non-human perception without resolving it to human metaphor; narrative through the historical-excavation layer and open-source authorship. The Term 7 clockwork chassis carried these insights first — the glasses carry them forward. --- ## Next files in this lab (when this stub matures) - `mechanics.md` — OI node activation, holographic lens reflection, the four-layer stack, open-source authoring - `ui-language.md` — what each layer reveals, colour/motion semantics on the lens surface - `visual-reference/` — Term 7 chassis photos (archival) + 2092-era glasses and gel-mycelium panel renders - `voice-fragments/` — in-character quotes