Backstage · radical transparency
Here is what this actually is. Plainly. Including the parts we are still figuring out.
CosmicMonkeys is a consciousness lifestyle brand built around a single thesis: the only obstacle to world peace is the thought that peace is not possible. The brand is currently version 0.9. The site is live; the message is the message; the mugs are real ceramic arriving in real post. Most everything else is being figured out as we go.
A small portion of every vessel sold contributes to land conservation on Sts’ailes territory in coastal British Columbia — the Indigenous nation whose name most closely carries what the English-speaking world now calls ‘Sasquatch’. We’re refining the contribution model. We’ll publish the actual figures here as soon as they make sense to publish.
Our print-on-demand partner is Printful. They print, they ship, they handle returns. We don’t see your card details. The ceramic is industry-standard white glossy earthenware in 11, 15 and 20 oz, dishwasher and microwave safe.
Field Notes (the dispatch). The Frequency (the broadcast). More vessels. Eventually, a record store for the music. A book, probably. Possibly a typewriter. None of it is required to receive the transmission.
Some early prompts produced Sasquatch images with tails. Some early site builds had headers that moved. The current Sasquatch is not yet the real Moss — Moss is being researched and refined. The light/dark inversion on the homepage hero broke twice before it landed. The road to a calm thing has not been calm.
Moss, Zen, Pixel, the Hyperbeings, the Tiny Travellers — invented. So is the frame they arrive in: the idea that this is a transmission from a settled future, reported back by people who were there. Nobody was there. It is a device, and we use it because a costume gets a sincere idea through a door that an essay bounces off.
The imagery is generated. The stills, the motion, the voices and the music all come out of generative tools, and which tools changes as they change. Each one was pointed, chosen from, rejected and run again by a person, which is the part the word ‘generated’ tends to swallow. The tool list changes. This paragraph changes with it.
A person. One person, for now — the ‘we’ on this page is a habit of the frame rather than a headcount. The thesis, the sentences, the running order, what ships and what gets binned: those are decisions, and someone makes them on purpose. The machines are very good at surfaces and have no opinion about peace.
One thing here is not a costume: “The only obstacle to world peace is the thought that peace is not possible.” That is not a character speaking. It is a claim about the world, made in earnest, and we mean it exactly as written. Everything else — the fur, the helmets, the transmissions — exists to carry that sentence to you. Argue with it if you like. It survives the argument.
The vessel pays for the work — the writing, the tools, the hosting, the next thing. That is what a shop is doing on a page about peace: it is how this pays for itself. A portion goes to Sts’ailes land conservation, as above. Nothing is asked of you; the message is free and stays free. The mug is for people who want to hold it.
Decoded transmission · the plain record
On the record · FOLLOWS
On the record · synthetic voice · 0:58
Disclosure · synthetic voice · 0:30
One message, nine grounds, one ceramic vessel. Three sizes — 11, 15 and 20 oz — at £18, £22 and £24. Printed to order by Printful; a portion of each funds land conservation on Sts’ailes territory.
Nine grounds. One message. Three sizes, printed to order.Hold one
The transmissions are AI-generated — image, motion and voice. There are no cameras where the signal comes from. This disclosure is required by law in some places and made gladly in all of them.
The artifact, plainly
Ceramic, three sizes, from £18. Printed with a message from witnesses who watched peace win. Held in the morning.