Three years ago, the A.O. Movement Collective set out to make a new performance. Little did we know that we were about to uncover our impending post-human future, and be tasked with saving the entire Universe. A post-human time traveler named ETLE implanted the story of her universe inside the mindbody of creator Sarah A.O. Rosner, and tasked the AOMC with unraveling the glitched message. If we fail, ETLE will wipe out humanity at our early origins, and give our species a chance to start all over again…without agriculture and capitalism, without bloodline and patriarchy…but without all of us.
ETLE tasked us with excavating prophetic knowledge our future before it happens, making sense of the dystopia and chaos and evolutionary shifts that are about to befall us. We knew we couldn’t do it alone, so over the last three years we reached out to 60+ collaborators across a huge range of media, asking them to use their vision to help us unravel these mysteries.
This fall, we’ll be premiering the final works of the Universe in a culminating 3-week festival featuring performance, screenings, parties, workshops, talks, music shows, gallery installations, and more! Check out the full lineup!
If you’re just joining us now, check out how far we’ve come with the previous works in the Universe: our multiplayer game ETLE_immersive, photography exhibit 1ND3X, 3D-printed Conspiracy Wearables, and graphic novel ETLE ILLUS!
We have a proven track record of turning a relatively small amount of support into something beautifully realized, and larger than any of us could do alone. Our upcoming festival of premieres is epic, ambitious, and maximal – we can bring it all to life, but we need your help! Can you help us save the Universe?
This may be your first time looking at it, but this kickstarter has been in the works for the last three years, and is one part of the Universe’s radical business experiment investigating how we might make art in a more economically sustainable way.
We’ve already raised $86,000 in support of the ETLE Universe – most of from small donations, curations, and purchases from people just like you! – and we’re only $6,000 away from being able to present our fall premieres. That’s less than 7% of our total fundraising!
When we launched the ELTE Universe in 2012, we opened the project to everyday curators–individuals who wanted to bring early financial support to the project and in exchange, get an inside experience of the Universe as it came into being. These curators brought a total of $8,000 to the project, and added their ideas and input into our creative network. In 2013, when we premiered ETLE ILLUS, 1ND3X, and Conspiracy Wearables, we created a kicksterter for each project, the goal being to reach out to new, non-dance-centric audiences and welcome them in to the Universe. Our strategy worked, and we were able to enlist folks who love to back comics on Kickstarter to get ETLE ILLUS sent all over the globe, and raise a total of $6,100 across all three projects. Add individual fundraising and our ticket sales projections to all of that, and we’re up to the current present:
Now, we’re at our final kickstarter, with just 7% of our budget left to raise. This whole project has been entirely self-produced—meaning that we’re not operating with the support of grants or presenters—and we’re creating something much larger and deeper than any of us could create as individual artists. As audience members and supporters, we’re asking for your help, and inviting you to join our ranks and help save the Universe. Can you help us bring this future into being?
Charity isn’t our style—we’re really into an exchange of awesome art and experiences for your financial and human support. What’s more, all of our rewards are designed to deepen your experience navigating the chronoverse.
From our digital time capsule, which will anchor you to this moment in time throughout all realities, to Jeff Poulin’s Conspiracy Wearables, to genuine vials of Etlogen, you can take home artifacts to keep the ETLE Universe close to you until it becomes our current present. Or, if experiences are more your thing, join us for the AOMC’s benefit, come over for a sci-fi sleepover, or even book your own performance of ETLE and the Anders for you and all your chronomultiplous friends! If you’d like to order multiple prizes, just send us a message – we’re always glad to work something out.
The A.O. Movement Collective’s ETLE Universe is a queer/feminist cyborg time travel epic…thing…uniting 60+ collaborating artists in the creation of network of original science fiction(s). It’s an entire universe of intersecting narratives and characters revolving around a time-traveling rebel cyborg known as ETLE. Initiated in 2012, the Universe is a maximalist investigation into collective authorship, queer narrative structure, and sustainable artmaking.
Over the project’s three-year lifespan, the ETLE Universe will premiere ten distinct works, each in a different media: an evening-length performance, a fashion show, a graphic novel, an experimental film, a photography installation, a collection of 3D-printed jewelry, fiction, academic essays, an immersive multiplayer gaming experience, and a concept soundtrack. In doing so, the ETLE Universe attempts to create a dynamic network of art that is culturally impactful, maximalist, and antiephemeral.
To catch up on the core narrative of what’s happened so far in the ETLE Universe, check out the project’s beginnings at http://ETLE.theAOMC.org, and then see how it’s evolved at www.ETLE.info. Tickets to all shows and events are on sale now, and selling fast! Get yours here.