Other Fantasies for Extinction
Other Fantasies for Extinction is a deeply researched meditation on Deep Time, the Earth’s history of past mass extinctions, and the spreading of modern humans across the globe. It asks the question, what does it mean to be living on a rapidly warming planet? And how does this change necessitate new narratives that can help us contextualize and process this moment of transition? What does transition feel like? How do I weave this notion of transition into the fabric of my day to day reality?
The text for Other Fantasies for Extinction was written by Rachel Garber Cole. Madeleine Boucher created the art for the book and Michael Simonelli composed and produced the Listening Party Piece. We hope you experience Other Fantasies for Extinction in its multiple immersive forms, and that its geological dreamscape will take you into the depths of Earth’s history and bring you back into a present that is both familiar and new.
We want this project to hold space for people to reflect on their personal investment in the Climate Crisis — how living through this transition transforms us, and how it requires us to show up for the world in new ways.
Thank you for spending some time here.
Other Fantasies for Extinction is supported with love by Anica Productions. www.anica.nyc
About the artists
Madeleine Boucher (Book Artist)
Madeleine Brehm Boucher (b. 1987, Washington DC) is an artist, art historian, and technologist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She is a founding member and Director of Direction at Shoestring Press, a cooperative fine art print shop and art space in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where she has been a member artist since 2011, as well as curated exhibitions and taught classes in printmaking and book arts. From 2016 to 2018, she led Artsy’s Art Genome Project — a team of art historians, engineers, and data scientists who are building the world’s first and only qualitative, objective data structures to describe contemporary art for search and recommendations. She holds an M.A. in Chinese Art History from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Columbia University.
Michael Simonelli (Composer)
Michael Simonelli is a New York-based producer, musician, and artist who creates for solo and collaborative projects. Recent works include a Listening Party Piece (Other Fantasies for Extinction) with artist Rachel Garber Cole, series music for IMDb’s You’re Not a Monster (created by Frank Lesser), and production/mixing for Nap LaJoy’s Kaleido. He currently works on podcasts for IBM Watson (thinkLeaders), Carat (The Human Element), and Distributed with Matt Mullenweg as a recording, mixing engineer, and editor. In addition he writes original music and sound design for the Longreads podcast (longreads.com) where he scores their original Essays series. He has released a number of albums as a composer, produce, and instrumentalist. Michael studied music at Hamilton College (B.A.) and UMass Amherst (M.M. Music Composition). He currently operates from his studio in Brooklyn, NY. Michael loves trail running, guitar bands, vinyl, and home-cooked food. He has a regular yoga practice as his 200-hour RYT. https://www.michaeltsimonelli.com/
Rachel Garber Cole (Writer, Performer)
Rachel Garber Cole is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist who works primarily in video and performance. Rachel’s background is in theater, and her current practice is deeply influenced by musical and text-based traditions. Recent works have been exhibited through The Florida Review Online, Aggregate Space Gallery, Flex Fest, Field Projects, Present Company, NARS Foundation, Anthology Film Archives, Queens World Film Festival, Festival L’Inconnu, Bushwick Film Festival, Blue Stockings Film Screenings, and Grrl Haus Cinema. Her ongoing oral history project, The Warmest Years on Record – which collects interviews from folks in New York City and New York State about their experiences with the climate crisis in these early years of global warming – has partnered with the Nut Island Creative Colony of Governor’s Island, the Brooklyn Public Library, and The History Center in Tompkins County in Ithaca, NY. Rachel also hosts a monthly Bring Your Own Film film/video open mic in Brooklyn. She is a recipient of the Brooklyn Arts Council’s Community Arts Fund, the Brooklyn Arts Council’s Seniors Partnering with Artists Citywide (SPARC) Grant, and has been granted residencies at Prairie Center of the Arts, The Studios of Key West, Crosshatch’s Hill House Artist Residency, The Ucross Foundation, NARS International Residency Program, and Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts.