Cosmohedron

View of the Cosmohedron from surrounding walkways in Numina

The **Cosmohedron** is a large, 3 story "snowman" shaped tower situated at the heart of Numina at Convergence Station. From the Meow Wolf website:

*"The Cosmohedron is to Numina as a nucleus is to a cell. It's gray-white shell stands in stark contrast to the green world in which it resides. It appears like a sort of gargantuan shelled deep-sea creature, or like a towering armored virus. Glowing polyhedrons and spikes pulse with shifting light and glittering sparks crawl up it's sides as it shudders and grumbles with odd sounds. Bulbous apertures reveal colorful interiors, the life within spanning the macro and micro worlds. A curling frill wraps the outside, part mushroom gills and part salamander gills, serving as a staircase for us tiny humans. It's spikes sink into the roof of Numina above it, and Numina wraps around its legs down below - the two have clearly grown into one another."*

## Lower Floor: Glam Garden

    The lower floor hosts the "Glam Garden," an interior space filled with vividly colored, translucent plants that cover the walls and ceiling.

### Activation

At the center of the room, a Sundial allows visitors to manipulate the ambiance by altering the time of day, creating shifting patterns of sound and light.

## Middle Floor: Frog Egg Garden

    The middle floor is home to the "Frog Egg Garden," an organic world teeming with alien flora and fauna. Drawing aesthetic inspiration from microbiology, tide pools, deep sea creatures, amphibians, molds, viruses, cells, and insects, this space unravels the intricate phenomena occurring within the heart of the Cosmohedron.

### Activation

The room is surrounded by multiple seating alcoves. Guests seated in these alcoves must collaborate to simultaneously press their palms against illuminated sensors, triggering a sound and light sequence in the room's ceiling. Here is a video tutorial of the activation.

## Top Floor: The Guts of the Guts

    The topmost level, "The Guts of the Guts," operates as the "brain" of the Cosmohedron. Here, the processing of cells, organisms, and energies transpires. Over time, the Cosmohedron’s initial viral impulses transformed into a more symbiotic relationship, with this level acting as the data processing center. It gathers information from Numina DNA and adjusts the cellular structure of outgoing material. Visitor interaction further develops outgoing cells into more complex forms, adding to the body of Numina. This level draws energy from guests, especially those who spend time seated in the "nucleus", and fuels them back in a reciprocal exchange that reshapes the swamp to better accommodate human visitors.

## Mythology

In Leomie's Field Journal, Leomie explores the mystical and scientific aspects of the Cosmohedron. On page 7, she notes:

*"Sometimes it feels like the Cosmohedron is Numina's center of gravity, like it holds some sort huge centrifugal force in suspension, warping Numina around itself. It appears so alien to this place, and yet so enmeshed. A touch to certain inner 'organelles' will send electrical impulses into nearby 'plants.' Is it animal? Is it like a mitochondria or nucleus? Is it conscious? Separate? Is it one lifeform in itself, or many? Is it listening? Can the Cosmohedron in Numina be thought of as a formula? Is it this structure within a structure a blueprint of how life is arranged in this other world? If I were to levitate and zoom out into the galaxy I feel that would see this is but one tiny link of an infinitely expanding chain twisting & spiraling in perfectly calculated disorder."*
These reflections suggest that the Cosmohedron could be perceived as both an independent lifeform and a crucial part of the larger ecosystem, possibly serving a role akin to a mitochondrion or nucleus within a cell. This sense of interconnectedness extends to her envisioning the Cosmohedron as a part of an infinitely expanding chain, hinting at its potentially fundamental role in the larger universe.

On page 19, she drew a parallel between Numina's portals and plasmodesmatas, cellular structures in plants that connect neighboring cells:

*"While looking through [my] old biology textbook, I came across a diagram of plasmodesmatas – structures in the cell walls of plants that connect neighboring cells. I immediately thought of all the portals in Numina that seem to open up to inaccessible warped reflections of Numina itself. If those are parallel universes as various theorists propose, with so many semi-open connections between them, could each be a single cell in a high dimensional plant?!? I have already been thinking of the 'ecosystem' as a cell. So cool!!! If Numina in its 6th dimensional entirety is one single plant than each universe represents a single macro cell in the larger plant. So it is indeed looking to grow by splitting off the 5th dimensional parallels of itself through the dimension-tree butterfly effect reality – splitting caused by the exercising of free will by linear being such as ourselves, much like a plant grows with mitosis. It also still makes sense that the Cosmohedron could be a 5th dimensional micro by which it has a symbiotic relationship to the cells of Numina. Same way a mitochondria does with our cells. So it makes sense that creatures are more like organelles in an ecosystem."*
Leomie's insights suggest that the Cosmohedron might be understood as an integral part of a larger, multi-dimensional organism. Her theory encompasses both the microcosmic (individual cells, organisms, and the Cosmohedron itself) and the macrocosmic (Numina and its various parallel realities). This view potentially redefines creatures as "organelles" in a larger ecosystem, signifying a holistic and interconnected understanding of life on Numina.

## Trivia

* A model of the Cosmohedron can be found in Omega Mart’s Trophy Awards Case.

* A video shows the process of constructing the Cosmohedron.

## Concept art, early models and previsualizations

Found in leaked permitting PDF's

A 3D rendering of the full structureLevel 1A rendering of level 1Level 2A 3D rendering of level 2Level 3A miniature of level 3A cross-section showing what's inside the 3 levelsOrganelle on level 3The Cosmohedron situated within NuminaBench on level 2Wall panel on level 2"Frog egg" ceiling dioramas on level 2Wall panels on level 3Concept art for the creature sitting on the side of the Cosmohedron
## References

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ Meow Wolf Convergence Credits - Glam Garden
3. ↑ Meow Wolf Convergence Credits - The Guts of the Guts
4. ↑ Leomie's Field Journal, page 7
5. ↑ Leomie's Field Journal, page 19