​Octopolis Fundraiser: How to Become an Octopus

​A Somatic Workshop with Miriam Simun

​July 18 | 7:00 PM – 12:00 AM | Berkeley, CA

​Supporting Octopolis

​LaynaJoy and the Big Art Collective are creating Octopolis, a monumental sculpture destined for Burning Man 2026 and beyond. A 20-foot illuminated octopus with interactive arms stretching 30–36 feet. A large-scale metal sculpture with integrated lighting, sensors, and multi-sensory elements. Her head: a communal gathering space filled with ocean sounds, bubble effects, cooling misters, and an overhead view of three glowing hearts. Her eyes: built from locally sourced driftwood.

​This is not art that ends in the desert.

​We believe art can be a force for renewal — and Octopolis is built by people who believe art can become habitat. From salvaged metal and donated fabric, this sculpture travels an extraordinary path: from the desert to the ocean floor, destined for coral reef restoration. A monumental work that directly contributes to the healing of the oceans. Art that ripples outward, that serves the living world it inhabits.

​Octopolis is named for something specific: the octopus. Distributed. Adaptive. Many-armed. A creature of the ocean, a being that senses and knows the world through constant exploration, that moves in unexpected ways, that thrives in uncertainty and responds with grace. And now, a creature whose home we are actively restoring through this work.

​This July, we're gathering to directly embody those principles. To learn what an octopus knows — how to sense, move, and think in radically different ways. To become the very intelligence that will birth this vision into existence. As LaynaJoy says: "Art that begins as a vision and ends as action."

​Every ticket supports the artists, builders, and visionaries bringing Octopolis to life.

​The Evening

​7:00 PM – Doors Open
Arrive, settle in, connect. Adaptogenic elixirs to ground and center.

​8:00 – 8:30 PM – Vision & Community
Hear directly from LaynaJoy and the Octopolis team. The story of the sculpture, the vision, the people making it real.

​8:30 – 10:30 PM – The Workshop
What might we learn by thinking, sensing, and responding like a cephalopod? In this embodied, experimental workshop, The Institute for Transhumanist Cephalopod Evolution invites participants to leave behind the habits of upright human life and explore the world from the perspective of a soft-bodied, many-armed, distributed-brained invertebrate.

​How to Become an Octopus (and sometimes squid) is a body-based training session in collective transformation, adaptation, and inhabiting uncertainty – not as a problem to be solved, but as a site of curiosity and possibility.

​We move through a series of psycho-physical exercises developed to cultivate cephalopod ways of being, drawing from neuroscience, marine biology, group dynamics, deep sea diving, and somatic (body-based) practices. Alone and together we find new ways of sensing, knowing and relating, which in turn open up new ways of being with ourselves, each other, and the environment. We play with breath, touch, movement, and coming in and out of relation. Open to anyone curious about cephalopods, new ways of sensing, and expanding the definition of self.

​10:30 PM – 12:00 AM – Integration & Gathering
Music, tea, elixirs, light bites. Time to integrate, connect, and celebrate what we've created together.

​Workshop Details

​We will work alone, in partners, and as a group. Please wear clothes you feel comfortable moving in, be prepared to take off your shoes and spend time on the floor. There will be an invitation to come into touch with yourself, your environment, and the others around you.

​For those with physical limitations, working in a chair is also possible. For specific disabilities please email em.savage45@gmail.com ahead of time and we will do our best to accommodate.

​About the Artists

​LaynaJoy

​LaynaJoy is a multifaceted, progressive artist and visionary, weaving together diverse disciplines to create immersive experiences. Her passion for building large-scale installations drives the energy to transform spaces into interactive worlds of art. She envisioned and brought to life Ravens Landing, an extraordinary off-grid gathering space—a sustainable sanctuary that serves as a testament to her innovative spirit, love for mother nature, and commitment to creating safe healing spaces where art, nature, and community converge.

​At Ravens Landing, LaynaJoy skillfully crafts unique and delicate jewelry pieces along with nature-inspired installations that reflect her deep connection to love, nature, and artistic vision. Using sustainable methods, she gathers material from nature and the beloved peacocks that free roam at Ravens Landing. Through her diverse creative pursuits, she embodies a passionate devotion to innovation, self-expression, wonder, and discovery.

​Miriam Simun

​Miriam Simun is a visual artist whose multidisciplinary practice uses science, somatics, scent and humor to create art works in various formats, including – video, installation, painting, performance, and communal sensorial experiences. Recurring questions revolve around interspecies relations and non-human intelligence; the relationship of technological innovation to mythology and desire; the construction of knowledge and the violence of categories; and radical reimaginings of life under ecological crisis. Trained as a sociologist, Simun takes on the role of ‘artist-as-fieldworker,’ conducting first-person research with diverse places and communities: from scientific laboratories to rewilded forests, from freedivers to human pollinators. This in-depth and corporeal research dictates the form of the final artworks.

​Simun’s work has been presented internationally, including the New Museum (NYC, 2024), Gropius Bau (Berlin, 2020), Momenta Biennale (Montreal, 2021), New Museum (New York, 2017), Himalayas Museum (Shanghai, 2017), MIT List Center for Visual Art (Cambridge, 2022) and the Bogota Museum of Modern Art (Colombia, 2019). Simun is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the Creative Capital Foundation grant, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation grant, Onassis Foundation fellowship, and Gulbenkian Foundation International Artist grant, among others. Recognized internationally in publications including the BBC, The New York Times, The New Yorker, CBC, MTV, Forbes, Flash Art International, Art21 and ARTNews, Simun's works are included in private collections and in the public collection of FRAC-Bretagne. Simun holds degrees from the MIT Media Lab (Design Fiction group) and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

​Tickets & Registration

​Sliding scale: $111 (Ovum) | $222 (Hatchling) | $333+ (Consortium)

​All tickets support the artists and visionaries bringing Octopolis to life.

​Questions? Email em.savage45@gmail.com