From being on air, atmosphere-bound and terrestrial beings, how could we dive in and adapt to other kinds of immersive and binding mediums which challenge our human spatial coordinates and ways of being - either down, underwater, or up, in outer space, into networks of vibrant dark matter, and outside the atmospheric critical zone where all known life evolves?
Contemplating the underwater spider using its diving bell not anymore as a water suit allowing her to prey on aquatic insects and crustaceans, but as a spacesuit for exploring not only the atmosphere but also space, is in fact not such a gratuitous analogy. It is no hasard if the training protocol for NASA astronauts involves spending extended periods of time deep below the water’s surface. Before embarking on a journey to its space station, NASA astronauts in training will spend hours at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, which houses a mockup of the International Space Station 40 feet underwater. They will typically spend six or eight hours at a time in the submerged station, wearing full space suits that weigh more than 350 pounds.
A literal “amphibian”, Argyroneta aquatica has at least two different kinds of life, being able to live both on land or in water - she inspires us to become what Eben Kirksey would call “ontological amphibians” (Kirksey, 2016) being able to have two or more modes of existence, travelling across Umwelten or specific worlds and even, maybe, between universes.
