XENON DOMUS

From Research to Reworlding: A Proposal for an Emergent Node-Based Society

— A Place-Based Artistic Inquiry Toward Living Otherwise —

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THE OVERARCHING IDEA

What if society were imagined as a single living cell—with a nucleus representing central authority, and the people as the fluid, dynamic cytoplasm that actually gives the cell its life?
And what if, instead of relying on a single nucleus to govern the whole, new clusters of mini-nuclei began forming organically—autonomous, interconnected, and grounded in the well-being of the whole rather than the survival of the core?

This project is a vision for that future.
It begins not with confrontation, but with careful listening.
It doesn’t impose alternatives—it uncovers what is already working, quietly, on the margins.

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ART AS ENTRYPOINT — NOT DECORATION

This is not art as representation.
This is art as methodology, as inquiry, and eventually, as infrastructure.

In its initial form, the XENON DOMUS: Living Otherwise Project will take the shape of an artistic residency, where one or more collaborators begin a situated research practice in Lisbon’s urban peripheries—spaces where traditional governance has often failed, but where powerful, ancestral forms of mutual aid and solidarity (such as djunta-mon) still thrive.

This early phase is not spectacle.
It is deep listening, observation, relationship-building, and story-gathering.

It is a performance of presence.

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RESEARCH IS THE FIRST NODE

The first “node” is not a physical place.
It is a circle of attention, formed through:

• Community immersion
• Intergenerational storytelling
• Participatory rituals of place
• Investigation into how people already cohabit, share, and govern together

This phase honors local knowledge as expert knowledge.
Rather than designing solutions, we reveal existing ones—practices born out of care, necessity, and inherited wisdom.

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SCALING THROUGH RELATIONSHIP, NOT REPLICATION

From this research node, the project proposes to seed the first intentional cohabitation node—an artist-led living structure organized into three spheres:

• Private (space to rest, reflect, regenerate)
• Semi-Public (spaces for work, collaboration, experimentation)
• Public (offerings to the surrounding community—dialogues, shared meals, actions)

Each node, once formed, becomes a living entity—not of power, but of presence.
Each has the responsibility and invitation to inspire, accompany, and share resources for the emergence of the next.                                                                                                                
New nodes do not replicate; they root into their own context, shaped by the people and the place, while maintaining mutual resonance with others.                                                                     ;
Every three nodes form a nucleus-a cluster that shares findings, redistributes resources, and holds collective functions.                                                                                                             
Together, they cultivate the next generation of nodes-birthing a growing, interconnected constellation.

A web of presence.                                                                                                                           
A choreography of trust.                                                                                                                    
A society not governed, but relationally sustained.