Project by Hao Ni

The project proposes a scientific outpost on Kivotos island, replacing its previous use as a helicopter landing post by transforming it into a place of environmental observation, restraint, and care. The project centers on a research vessel and a constellation of desert islands in the surrounding archipelago, forming a field laboratory dedicated to occupation and the maintenance and even enhancement of desertedness. The project rests on a philosophical oxymoron: human science is deployed to prioritize non-human life while minimizing human presence. Two contrasting references guide this approach. In Theory of Religion, Georges Bataille writes that “an animal is in the world like water in water,” fully immersed in its surroundings, undivided from nature. Meanwhile, the Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi(莊子) offers the parable of the man who dreams he is a butterfly, or the butterfly who dreams he is a man. Imagining a form of scientific symbiosis, the only humans allowed to inhabit the island are scientists who act not as occupants but as custodians of non-human processes, engaged in a form of science that behaves as if it were non-human. These researchers monitor bird migration, insect ecosystems, and marine species, proposing the creation of a small sea park south of Hydra. Their presence is regulated and minimal, structured by protocols rather than comforts. Their dwelling units reflect this fragile boundary: each consists of a split double bed, half grounded on the dry island and half floating on the sea; an architecture that places the scientist in a continuous oscillation between land and water, presence and disappearance. In this state, the scientist becomes a liminal creature, not unlike the butterfly, drifting between identities, suspended between categories. The proposal acknowledges that the complete erasure of humans is impossible. However, it seeks a calibrated relation in which scientific attention serves the rhythms of non-human life without establishing dominion. The project is not a sanctuary or a laboratory of control; it is a space for observation and adjustment, where science behaves more like a question than an answer and scientists become butterfly-like, momentary visitors in a world not made for them.