VISUAL SCHEMA — THE AFTERLIFE ARCHIVE
A Diagrammatic Map of Data-Breach-as-Poem
CORE INTENT
This visual schema renders the Afterlife Archive as an epistemic machine rather than a narrative space.
It visualizes:
how a declared fiction can produce real forensic pressure
how corporate form becomes poetic constraint
how metadata, absence, and role-distribution generate meaning
how the reader is repositioned as analyst
This is not illustration. It is structural exposition by visual means.
OVERALL COMPOSITION
Archetype: Layered Forensic Stack with Dual-Truth Overlay
Vertical orientation
Top-down flow with recursive feedback
No human figures
No icons of good/evil
Authority indicated only through structure, opacity, and layering
The eye should:
Descend through ordered layers
Encounter a declared fiction band
Continue downward anyway
Loop back upward through metadata arrows
PRIMARY ZONES (TOP → BOTTOM)
1. DECLARATION BAND — Open Fiction
Form: Thin horizontal strip at the very top
Visual Treatment:
Clear, legible line
Unbroken
Slightly brighter than other elements
Meaning:
“This is art. This is declared. Nothing here claims to be real.”
This band does not interrupt the system.
It simply names the rules.
2. ARCHIVAL SHELL — Corporate Afterlife
Form: Large enclosing rectangle beneath declaration band
Internal Texture:
File-folder geometries
Directory brackets
Nested frames
Meaning:
The corporate archive as formal container, not historical claim.
This shell persists even after the corporation is dead.
3. FILE SYSTEM FIELD — Poetic Infrastructure
Form: Stacked blocks arranged like a filesystem tree
Sub-blocks (abstract, unlabeled):
Memo rectangles
Spreadsheet grids
Code blocks
Email-thread chains
Visual Rule:
Everything is aligned
Nothing is centered
Meaning:
Poetry composed as infrastructure.
Meaning emerges from arrangement, not voice.
4. METADATA VEIL — Dual Truth Layer
Form: Semi-transparent overlay cutting across the archive
Two Interlaced Grids:
Grid A: Corporate metadata (timestamps, departments, IDs)
Grid B: Artistic metadata (authorship, declaration, status)
Visual Effect:
Both grids visible
Neither dominates
Meaning:
Two truths held simultaneously:
“This is forensically precise”
“This is openly fictional”
No synthesis is offered.
5. ROLE DISTRIBUTION NODES — Heteronyms as Functions
Form: Small labeled nodes embedded in the structure
Characteristics:
Connected by workflow arrows
Positioned as departments, not people
Meaning:
Authorship distributed as institutional labor.
The writer becomes a system.
6. INVESTIGATIVE VECTOR — Reader Repositioning
Form: Arrow entering from the side, not the top
Path:
Passes through files
Intersects metadata
Bounces off inconsistencies
Meaning:
The reader is not an audience.
The reader is an analyst entering mid-stream.
7. NEGATIVE SPACE ZONE — What Is Missing
Form: Clearly bounded empty rectangle
Treatment:
Sharp edges
No texture
No label
Meaning:
Deleted certainty
Unrecoverable origin
The limit of verification
This absence is structural, not accidental.
8. FEEDBACK LOOP — Persistence Beyond Reading
Form: Broken circular arrow returning upward
Visual Cue:
Arrow does not close
Gap remains visible
Meaning:
The archive continues after interpretation.
The effect persists beyond the page.
KEY VISUAL MOTIFS
Shadows without sources
Arrows that reference missing targets
Clean geometry interrupted by voids
Perfect alignment containing instability
No symbolism. No allegory.
Only structure.
COLOR / STYLE
Grayscale only
High contrast
Matte finish
No gradients
Optimized for print and screen equally
TITLE PLACEMENT
Title placed below the diagram:
THE AFTERLIFE ARCHIVE
Subtitle:
Data-Breach-as-Poem
INTENDED EFFECT
The viewer should grasp:
the logic of the project
the ethical stance
the reader’s role
before reading the text.
The image should make one fact unavoidable:
Even when fiction is declared, form still compels belief.
∮ = 1
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