Strange Attractors: Christopher Kardambikis, Jasdeep Khaira and Suzie Silver

ISBN: 978-0984843404

Published by Encyclopedia Destructica and The Institute of Extraterrestrial Sexuality.

Curated by Christopher Kardambikis, Jasdeep Khaira and Suzie Silver.

According to recent scientific reports, there may be between 8 billion and 13 billion life bearing planets in our galaxy alone. With numbers like that we will certainly encounter living beings from outer space someday. When we do, what will they look like? What special parts will they have, and how will they “do it?” Will we find what they do sexy, incomprehensible or just plain gross? You can find the answers to these questions and more in Strange Attractors: Investigations in Non-Humanoid Extraterrestrial Sexualities, an extraordinary 288-page, full color book and 120-minute DVD encompassing art, writing and film.

Strange Attractors includes the work of 70 artists, writers and filmmakers who have created remarkable explorations of possible extraterrestrial life forms and their multifarious sexual desires. A joint publication of Encyclopedia Destructica and The Institute of Extraterrestrial Sexuality, Strange Attractors straddles the line between speculative scientific exploration and artistic imagination.

Contributors include: Amy Gerstler, David Horvitz, Shana Moulton, Anselm Berrigan, Peggy Ahwesh, Thomas Scioli, Suzanne Wright, Jacob Ciocci and many more. For example, Andrew Negrey’s collages illustrate a variety of couplings including a ‘Green Diver’ lusting after buoyant ‘Glo-balls’ on unregistered planet 311OPEL, Adam Atkinson’s prose explores “The Sexual Habits of Extra-Terrestrials as Observed by Jules Verne,” and in Shana Moulton’s humorous video, “Green Portal 43,” extraterrestrials create an erotic film based on observed human behaviors that arouse them during a visit to Earth.

While science fiction literature and film have often touched on extraterrestrial sexuality, these encounters are frequently represented as between a human and a humanoid extraterrestrial. Gender is often portrayed as binary even when it is homosexual. Sexual encounters consist primarily of engagements between two beings. Inspired by Kepler, NASA’s first mission capable of finding Earth-size planets around other stars, Suzie Silver of The Institute of Extraterrestrial Sexuality says, “this project has gone beyond male and female, beyond queer, beyond any notion of gender, beyond the anthropomorphic, to erotic possibilities as vastly varied as the Milky Way itself.”

Full List of Contributors: Peggy Ahwesh, Scott Andrew, Adam Atkinson, Matt Barton, Patricia Bellan-Gillen, Neil Bender, Anselm Berrigan, Kim Brickley, Morgan Cahn, Byron Alexander Campbell, Micha Cardenas and Elle Mehrmand, Cynthia Chris, Ross Christy, Sonja Crafts, Matthew R. Day, Nick DeFord, Barry Doupé, James Duesing, Emilia Edwards, Amy Gerstler, Kate Gilbert and Jenn Kolmel, Sally Hayden Gilmore, Thomson Guster, Andrew Hadle, Hilary Harp, Hooliganship, David Horvitz, Mark Hosford, Jesse Hulcher, Mark Brown Hunter, Ian Ingram, Jen Inman and Tom McConnell, Amy Johnson, Juliacks, Christopher Kardambikis, Christine Kelly, Krisztina Lazar, Bum Lee, Elin Lennox, Denise Li, Michael Mallis and Michael McParlane, Darrin Martin and Torsten Zenas Burns, Rachel Mayeri, Luke Meeken, Shana Moulton, Julie Murray, Ryan Murray, Andrew Negrey, Michael Pisano, Carol Prusa, Vanessa Roveto, Alyce Santoro, Will Schlough, Thomas Scioli, Larry Shea, Suzie Silver, Lizzee Solomon, Ed Steck, Joshua Thorson and Mike Harringer, Barbara Weissberger, Sara Wintz, Erin Womack, Suzanne Wright, and Zac Zetterburg. 

Encyclopedia Destructica is a community-based artist book publisher based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania founded in 2005 (encyclopediadestructica.com)

The Institute of Extraterrestrial Sexuality (IES) uses art and speculative science to creatively explore and imagine extraterrestrial sexualities. Suzie Silver founded IES in 2009. (extraterrestrialsexuality.org)