Conceptual & Knowledge Systems

This collection of data streams moves beyond the physical and into the conceptual. It tracks the discourse around different ways of knowing, being, and governing. From indigenous science and decolonial theory to the rights of nature and digital folklore, these streams represent the philosophical and political frameworks that shape our relationship with the planet and each other.

intangible — INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE

What it does: At each data refresh, the organism selects one of the curated search terms below, pulls its corresponding academic publication count from the local JSON file, and maps that value to the particle scale.

How location is fetched: This is a non-geographic data stream.

Curated Search Terms:

• intangible cultural heritage — UNESCO notion of living practices and traditions.
• oral traditions — The transmission of stories, songs, and proverbs.
• traditional craftsmanship — Lineages of technique, tools, and making.
• indigenous knowledge systems — Place-based, holistic epistemologies.
• living heritage — Culture that is actively practiced and evolving.
• non western epistemologies — Plural knowledge frames beyond Eurocentrism.
• ritual ecologies — Ceremonies that link people, place, and the more-than-human.
• ancestral knowledge — Intergenerational know-how and memory.
• embodied culture — Skills and meanings carried and transmitted through the body.
• ritual practices — Repeated, symbolic acts that sustain social-ecological bonds.

Source of the data: The publication counts are from the OpenAlex API, compiled and stored in the local all-static-data.json file.

API or JSON: JSON

Description: Intangible cultural heritage is treated here as a repository of practices that shape human–environment interactions and sustain multispecies ways of life. This layer highlights non-material cultural continuity as a form of ecological knowledge and resilience. It makes visible the fragile networks of practice that resist commodification and that are essential to regenerative futures.

traditionalKnowledge — TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE (TEK)

What it does: Selects a random term from the curated list below, pulls its academic publication count from the local JSON file, and maps the value to the particle scale.

How location is fetched: This is a non-geographic data stream.

Curated Search Terms:

• traditional ecological knowledge — Cumulative, place-anchored stewardship knowledge.
• indigenous science — Empirical knowledge rooted in specific cultural and land-based contexts.
• TEK — A common academic shorthand for the traditions above.
• local ecological knowledge — The know-how of fishers, farmers, and foragers.
• ethnobotany — The study of human–plant relations and uses.
• indigenous land management — Practices such as cultural burning, grazing, and water stewardship.
• relational ecology — A worldview centered on kinship among beings and systems.
• ceremonial science — Protocols where ceremony and scientific practice are inseparable.
• oral ecologies — Ecological knowledge carried and transmitted in oral forms.

Source of the data: The publication counts are from the OpenAlex API, compiled and stored in the local all-static-data.json file.

API or JSON: JSON

Description: TEK indexes long-duration, place-anchored environmental knowledge. Treating TEK as a core variable destabilizes a technoscientific monopoly on "expertise" and centers relational, interspecies practices.

decolonization — DECOLONIZATION & POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES

What it does: Selects a random term from the extensive list below, pulls its academic publication count from the local JSON file, and maps the value to the particle scale.

How location is fetched: This is a non-geographic data stream.

Curated Search Terms:

• decolonization movements — Political and cultural liberation efforts.
• land back — The movement to restore indigenous governance and territory.
• indigenous resurgence — The renewal of practices, governance, and lifeways.
• decolonial praxis — Methods and actions that enact decolonization.
• epistemic/knowledge decolonization — The work of dismantling cognitive empire.
• decolonial repair — Processes of redress, restoration, and reparation.
• indigenous futurism — Speculative futures centered on indigenous worlds.
• pluriverse — The concept of a world where many coexisting ontologies are possible.
• postcolonial literature — Literatures that contest the legacies of empire.
• decolonial theory — Theory generated from the margins and the Global South.
• subaltern studies — Histories and voices from outside hegemonic power structures.
• third world literature — Anti-imperial literary traditions.
• postcolonial ecologies — The study of ecology through a decolonial critique.
• literary decolonization — Aesthetic strategies against empire.
• hybrid narratives — Mixed forms that resist colonial logics of purity.
• resistance poetics — Formal tactics of refusal, hope, and survival in writing.
• restorative justice — Processes designed to repair harm and restore relations.

Source of the data: The publication counts are from the OpenAlex API, compiled and stored in the local all-static-data.json file.

API or JSON: JSON

Description: Decolonization data traces movements, theories, and practices that dismantle extractive governance and reassert indigenous juridical, cultural, and ecological sovereignties. Including this layer embeds a political-ethical critique into the system. It demands that any ecological reading account for histories of dispossession and the ongoing work of epistemic and territorial repair.

languages — ENDANGERED & REVITALIZED LANGUAGES

What it does: Selects a random term from the curated list below, pulls its academic publication count from the local JSON file, and maps the value to the particle scale.

How location is fetched: This is a non-geographic data stream.

Curated Search Terms:

• extinct languages — Languages with no living native speakers.
• endangered languages — Languages whose vitality is at risk.
• language revitalization — Efforts in teaching, use, and transmission recovery.
• dying languages — Languages in an acute phase of endangerment.
• language reclamation — Community-led re-adoption of a heritage language.
• language sovereignty — The right of peoples to govern their linguistic futures.

Source of the data: The publication counts are from the OpenAlex API, compiled and stored in the local all-static-data.json file.

API or JSON: JSON

Description: Language vitality encodes classificatory schemes, ecological knowledge, and relational ontologies about place and being. Mapping discourse on endangered and revitalized languages makes explicit the epistemic losses that accompany biodiversity decline and the cultural strategies that resist it.

seeds — SEEDS & AGRICULTURAL SOVEREIGNTY

What it does: Selects a random term from the curated list below, pulls its academic publication count from the local JSON file, and maps the value to the particle scale.

How location is fetched: This is a non-geographic data stream.

Curated Search Terms:

• seed bank — Ex-situ conservation repositories for genetic material.
• seed sovereignty — Community and farmer control over seed futures.
• heirloom seeds — Culturally conserved, open-pollinated varieties.
• crop genetic diversity — The genetic variation within crops that enables resilience.
• seed conservation — The practice of in-situ and ex-situ safeguarding of seeds.
• landrace varieties — Locally adapted, traditional crop lines.
• decolonial agriculture — Food systems designed to resist extractive, colonial models.
• open source seeds — Germplasm sharing free from intellectual property restrictions.
• agricultural commons — Shared stewardship regimes for agricultural resources.
• ancestral seeds — Seed lineages with deep cultural ties to specific peoples and places.

Source of the data: The publication counts are from the OpenAlex API, compiled and stored in the local all-static-data.json file.

API or JSON: JSON

Description: Seed systems are storied repositories of crop diversity and community resilience. Tracking seeds and seed-sovereignty frames agro-biodiversity as a living commons and a site of confrontation with intellectual property, industrial agriculture, and colonial supply chains.

queer — MORE-THAN-HUMAN ECOLOGIES

What it does: Selects a random term from the curated list below, pulls its academic publication count from the local JSON file, and maps the value to the particle scale.

How location is fetched: This is a non-geographic data stream.

Curated Search Terms:

• queer ecology — Critiques of heteronormativity and dualism in conceptions of “nature.”
• multispecies kinship — Frameworks of kinship that extend beyond species lines.
• trans ecology — The study of transition, flux, and metamorphosis as core ecological principles.
• non-normative nature — Resisting the policing of purity and “naturalness.”
• queer environmental studies — The academic intersection of these fields.
• queer botany — Understanding plant life through queer theoretical lenses.
• compost politics — A metaphor and method centered on decay, contamination, and renewal.
• trans-corporeality — The concept of porous, interconnected bodies across species and materials.
• eco-feminism — A gendered critique of extractivism and economies of care.
• mycelial networks — Fungal relationality as a model and metaphor for interconnectedness.
• intersectional ecology — Understanding ecology through the lens of intersecting oppressions.
• techno ecology — The study of technology as an entangled part of living systems.

Source of the data: The publication counts are from the OpenAlex API, compiled and stored in the local all-static-data.json file.

API or JSON: JSON

Description: More-Than-Human Ecologies gathers perspectives that displace anthropocentric and normative taxonomies in favor of kinship, flux, and multispecies co-making. This stream brings an ethical sensitivity to non-normative relations among beings and technologies, proposing ontologies where agency and care are distributed across human and more-than-human actors.

rights — RIGHTS OF NATURE & NON-HUMAN LEGAL PERSONHOOD

What it does: Selects a random term from the curated list below, pulls its academic publication count from the local JSON file, and maps the value to the particle scale.

How location is fetched: This is a non-geographic data stream.

Curated Search Terms:

• rights of nature — The legal framework recognizing ecosystems as subjects with rights.
• legal personhood rivers — Specific cases where rivers have been granted the status of a legal person.
• earth jurisprudence — A legal philosophy that centers the well-being of Earth systems.
• ecocide law — The movement to criminalize severe, widespread environmental harm.
• nature’s rights movement — The global advocacy for non-human rights.
• environmental personhood — The legal concept of granting entity status to ecosystems.
• non-human legal personhood — Extending legal frameworks beyond human beings.
• eco jurisprudence — The integration of ecological principles into law.
• planetary justice — A concept of legal equity for ecosystems on a global scale.
• sacred geographies — Legally protected landscapes with spiritual significance.
• interspecies law — The emerging field of legal relations between species.

Source of the data: The publication counts are from the OpenAlex API, compiled and stored in the local all-static-data.json file.

API or JSON: JSON

Description: Rights-of-Nature indicators document juridical shifts that reconfigure ecosystems and species as legal subjects. This dataset materializes how law can become an instrument of ecological recognition and protection.

regenerativeFuture — REGENERATIVE FUTURES & CIRCULAR ECONOMIES

What it does: Selects a random term from the curated list below, pulls its academic publication count from the local JSON file, and maps the value to the particle scale.

How location is fetched: This is a non-geographic data stream.

Curated Search Terms:

• degrowth politics — Advocating for economic contraction for ecological and social well-being.
• cradle to cradle — A closed-loop design framework with no waste.
• reduce reuse repair — The core principles of waste minimization.
• repair culture — The social embrace of fixing and maintenance over disposal.
• maker movement — A culture of DIY, open-source fabrication.
• repair cafes — Community-based events dedicated to collective repair.
• circular economy — An economic model based on resource cycles with minimal waste.
• open hardware — Design files for physical objects that are freely shared.
• ewaste justice — The movement for equitable and safe disposal of electronic waste.
• infrastructure care — Framing maintenance and care as a political and ethical act.
• maintenance feminism — A feminist critique of the devaluation of maintenance and care work.
• commons ontology — A worldview based on shared resource governance.

Source of the data: The publication counts are from the OpenAlex API, compiled and stored in the local all-static-data.json file.

API or JSON: JSON

Description: Metrics around degrowth, circular design, and repair cultures and cradle-to-cradle paradigms point to systemic alternatives to extractive linearity towards infrastructures that are being redesigned for longevity and reciprocity.

digitalFolklore — DIGITAL FOLKLORE & VERNACULAR WEB CULTURE

What it does: Selects a random term from the curated list below, pulls its academic publication count from the local JSON file, and maps the value to the particle scale.

How location is fetched: This is a non-geographic data stream.

Curated Search Terms:

• digital folklore — The study of folklore as it manifests in digital spaces.
• internet folklore — Online myths, memes, stories, and legends.
• vernacular web — Grassroots, non-corporate, everyday web culture.
• HTML bricolage — The practice of hand-coded, improvised, and personal websites.
• digital ritual — Repeated, symbolic practices that occur online.
• techno shamanism — Intersections of ritual, spirituality, and technology.
• open source culture — The collaborative, sharing-based culture around open source software.
• digital commons — Shared, collectively governed digital resources.
• peer governance — Collective rule-making and governance in online communities.

Source of the data: The publication counts are from the OpenAlex API, compiled and stored in the local all-static-data.json file.

API or JSON: JSON

Description: Digital folklore indexes decentralized practices that cultivate alternative digital commons and resist technofeudal concentration. This dataset connects cultural persistence, net neutrality, and platform governance to imaginaries of a decolonized internet.

aiConsciousness — AI CONSCIOUSNESS & MACHINE SENTIENCE

What it does: Selects a random term from the curated list below, pulls its academic publication count from the local JSON file, and maps the value to the particle scale.

How location is fetched: This is a non-geographic data stream.

Curated Search Terms:

• artificial consciousness — The study of creating synthetic systems with awareness.
• sentient AI — AI theorized to have subjective experience or feeling.
• machine awareness — Perceptual and cognitive responsiveness in AI.
• AI sentience — The capacity for AI to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively.
• conscious machines — The concept of machines possessing self-awareness.
• machine ethics — The field concerned with ensuring moral behavior in AI.
• AI ethics — Normative frameworks for the development and use of AI.
• robot rights — The debate over legal and moral rights for autonomous robots.
• organoid consciousness — The study of awareness in lab-grown neural tissue.
• LLM subjectivity — Exploring the potential for subjective experience in Large Language Models.
• xenopsychology — The speculative study of alien or non-human minds.

Source of the data: The publication counts are from the OpenAlex API, compiled and stored in the local all-static-data.json file.

API or JSON: JSON

Description: Data on AI consciousness surface the ethical and ontological stakes of extending subjectivity beyond human bodies. This cluster invites reckoning with machine-human entanglements: how cognitive architectures redistribute agency, blur responsibility, and open new imaginaries of personhood.