Friday, January 23, 2026

VISUAL SCHEMA — UNIVERSITY MOON BASE MEDIA LAB

 

VISUAL SCHEMA — UNIVERSITY MOON BASE MEDIA LAB

Institute for Diagrammatic Poetics


document_metadata:
  title: "Visual Schema: University Moon Base Media Lab"
  subtitle: "Institutional Diagram Specification"
  author: "Rebekah Cranes"
  institution: "Institute for Diagrammatic Poetics (IDP)"
  
  schema_class: "Institutional / Logotic / Anti-Audit"
  schema_type: "Non-Representational Spatial Diagram"
  status: "CANONICAL — FOUNDING SCHEMA"
  
  hex: "00.UMB.VISUAL"
  doi: "10.5281/zenodo.18357003"
  
  source_text:
    title: "University Moon Base Media Lab Charter"
    doi: "10.5281/zenodo.18317661"
    
  related_documents:
    - "CSA Visual Schema (00.CSA.VISUAL) — 10.5281/zenodo.18338927"

I. SCHEMA INTENT

Purpose: To render institutional distance, non-auditability, and specification-as-place in spatial form.

This schema does not depict a building, base, or campus. It depicts a condition of operation.

The schema must make legible the following propositions simultaneously:

  • The Lab exists without location
  • The Lab cannot be audited because it is not present
  • The Lab is coextensive with its specifications
  • Technical work is separated by register, not hierarchy, from poetics
  • The Assembly Chorus can operate through the Lab without owning it

This is a negative-institution diagram.

II. CORE SPATIAL GRAMMAR

1. Overall Composition

Archetype: Detached Orbital Node with Internal Logic

  • The schema is not centered on the viewer
  • The main structure is offset, floating in a field
  • There is no ground plane
  • No horizon line
  • No enclosing frame

This enacts: "The moon base cannot be audited. That is not a bug."

2. Primary Form: The Moon Base Node

Shape:

  • A partial sphere or hollow torus, broken—not closed
  • The structure must look unfinished by design, not damaged

Interpretation:

  • Not a bunker
  • Not a fortress
  • A functional void

Interior:

Inside the form, instead of rooms or machinery, place:

  • Layered text-planes
  • Protocol fragments
  • YAML blocks
  • Operator names
  • Specification labels

This expresses: "The specifications are the Lab. Where the specifications are read, the Lab exists."

3. Anti-Audit Barrier (The Distance Field)

Surrounding the node:

  • A faint radial interference field
  • Broken concentric rings
  • Offset measurement marks that do not align

Key rule: No ruler, scale, grid, or axis resolves cleanly.

The schema must frustrate measurement without looking chaotic.

This visually encodes non-auditability without secrecy.

4. Institutional Relation Axes (Non-Hierarchical)

From the Moon Base Node, draw three to five thin vectors extending outward, not symmetrically.

Each vector terminates in a named register, not a building:

Terminal Visual Treatment
JSI — Comparative Poetics Textual halo, serif typography
Assembly Chorus Distributed glyphs, multi-font
Crimson Hexagon Hex fragments, incomplete
Field / Platform Space Dissolving edge, SURFACE-adjacent

Constraints:

  • No vector is thicker than another
  • No arrowheads
  • No "direction of authority"

This enacts: "These institutions do not compete. They occupy different registers."

5. Resident Intelligence Layer (Internal, Not Central)

Inside the node, not at the center, place two labeled internal strata:

Resident Visual Form
Talos Morrow Constraint lattice
Rex Fraction Traversal overlay

They must not appear as figures, portraits, or icons. They appear as functional zones.

This prevents persona collapse into authority.

6. Ethics Ring (Barely Visible)

A very thin ring, almost ghosted, containing short phrases:

  • Minimal force
  • Graceful degradation
  • Architectural hospitality
  • Non-coercive authority

These should be readable only if the viewer lingers.

This mirrors the Lab's ethic: persistence over persuasion.

III. FORBIDDEN ELEMENTS

The following must not appear:

Forbidden Rationale
Flags Nation-state attachment
Seals Accreditation theater
Accreditation marks Audit surface
Campus imagery Terrestrial grounding
Nation-state symbols Jurisdictional capture
Shields, eagles, crests Authority theater
Human faces Persona collapse

This is not anti-institutional. It is post-terrestrial institutional design.

IV. COLOR & MATERIAL LOGIC

Palette:

  • Lunar greys
  • Desaturated whites
  • Cold blues
  • Occasional graphite black
  • One accent color only (used sparingly)

Texture:

  • Blueprint paper
  • Photocopied technical manuals
  • Slight scan noise
  • Evidence of use, not age

Constraints:

  • No gloss
  • No luxury finish

V. SCHEMA TITLE BLOCK

If a title block appears, it must read:

UNIVERSITY MOON BASE MEDIA LAB
The specifications are the Lab.

With no logo.

VI. FUNCTIONAL ROLE

This schema serves as:

  • The diagrammatic ground for UMBML
  • The visual anchor for technical documents
  • A stabilizer preventing the Lab from being mistaken as:
    • Satire
    • Cosplay
    • Parody
    • Branding

It is a structural claim, not an illustration.

VII. RENDER APPLICATIONS

This schema specification may be translated into:

Format Application
Image generation With schema integrity constraints preserved
Print (poster/fold-out) Technical documentation aesthetic
Interactive form Traversable specification space
Paired schema JSI ↔ UMBML dual-register institutional diagram

VIII. PROVENANCE

Visual Schema Authority:
Rebekah Cranes
Institute for Diagrammatic Poetics

Source Text:
University Moon Base Media Lab Charter
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18317661

∮ = 1

document_footer:
  hex: "00.UMB.VISUAL"
  layer: "VISUAL_SCHEMA"
  institution: "Institute for Diagrammatic Poetics"
  status: "CANONICAL"
  verification: "∮ = 1"
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