Rabbit Island

September 21, 2011 6:13 PM

Imagine a remote, forested island in the largest body of freshwater in the world. Now imagine living on that island and being a part of one of the most unique and challenging artist residencies in the world. Rabbit Island is that island, and with your help, Rabbit Island will become that residency.

The 90 acre Rabbit Island, initially a Kickstarter project, has become a reality. Follow the blog or Flickr feed from this uninhabited island-turned-artist-collective.
posted by Foci for Analysis (45 comments total)

That looks like a pretty cool project. I imagine they also get the distinction of being the first people to actually use one of those Best Made axes to cut something.
posted by ghharr at 6:27 PM on September 21, 2011

Needs more rabbits.
posted by Trurl at 6:37 PM on September 21, 2011 [6 favorites]

They should have named it Watership Down.
posted by hippybear at 6:49 PM on September 21, 2011 [6 favorites]

So... they buy a boat without having its engine checked out by a reliable mechanic, then buy another boat which is also mechanically unreliable, then buy a boat they manage to sink in rough water. All in the course of one season.

My mother's people were fishermen on Superior (once my 6 year old grandfather was saved from drowning after falling off his father's boat in October by being pull back aboard by his hair). It is not a lake to fuck around with. I wish them luck.
posted by Chrischris at 6:54 PM on September 21, 2011 [6 favorites]

Superior, 'tis said, never gives up her dead when the gales of November come early. Gordon Lightfoot knows.
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:58 PM on September 21, 2011 [8 favorites]

You know a people are hardcore when they become grandfathers at 6 years old.
posted by DU at 7:04 PM on September 21, 2011 [22 favorites]

They should have named it Watership Down.

Perhaps there's a man named Sawyer reading that book on the island, right now.
posted by hanoixan at 7:04 PM on September 21, 2011 [4 favorites]

You know a people are hardcore when they become grandfathers at 6 years old.

Got to start young up there. Winters are long and cold; besides, there isn't much else to do.
posted by Chrischris at 7:07 PM on September 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake in the world, by depth and volume. Superior only has a larger surface area.

I'm starting a pedant collective.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 7:09 PM on September 21, 2011 [11 favorites]

Their first project is to design a gigantic alien monster.
posted by CaseyB at 7:34 PM on September 21, 2011 [4 favorites]

So... they buy a boat without having its engine checked out by a reliable mechanic, then buy another boat which is also mechanically unreliable, then buy a boat they manage to sink in rough water. All in the course of one season.

The first one sank into the swamp. The second one... sank into the swamp. The third one burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one... the fourth one stayed up!
posted by hippybear at 7:49 PM on September 21, 2011 [14 favorites]

Maybe they can start a dental floss farm...
posted by shnarg at 7:56 PM on September 21, 2011

I thought Montana was the place for to become a floss tycoon.
posted by 445supermag at 8:23 PM on September 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

This looks like a really cool project and I'd love to visit there.

There's already some lulz about sinking boats and I'm sure the hipster epithets are in the mail, but the bottom line is they are trying something and living their principles. Boats sink. I don't think they are claiming to be all-knowing hardened outdoorsmen. They're trying something, and when you try something it doesn't always work perfectly the first, second or third time.
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:27 PM on September 21, 2011 [5 favorites]

Agent Cooper approves of this island.
posted by arcticseal at 8:28 PM on September 21, 2011

Also from their FAQs one of the reasons for the name is that there are indeed many rabbits.
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:30 PM on September 21, 2011

kuujjuarapik writes "Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake in the world, by depth and volume. Superior only has a larger surface area. "

So Superior is the largest and Baikal is the largest where you can't see it.

kuujjuarapik writes "I'm starting a pedant collective."
Don't forget to invite the architects. The Burj Khalifa unified all the assorted tallestests but up until then (and in the future) there was a lot of debate about world tallest.
posted by Mitheral at 8:45 PM on September 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

I foresee a not too distant reality show pitting the Rabbit Island collective against the Libertarian islanders in a number of weekly, successively wackier tasks.
posted by dave78981 at 8:47 PM on September 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

hipster or lumberjack?
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 8:55 PM on September 21, 2011

"I've been in my studio apartment for eight years now. I know I will never ever sell a painting while I'm alive. What I want is a view. I want a window where I can see a tree, or even water. I want to be on an island, far away from these atrocious rents."

"We put together a Kickstarter for you, Dr. Lecter."

"Rabbit Island Animal Disease Research Center. Sounds charming."

"We can arrange a soft bag with some blunt paintbrushes. Of course you'll have to use a canvas with no dangerous angles."

"You drive a hard bargain, Clarice. Fskfskfskfskfskfsk!"
posted by tumid dahlia at 8:56 PM on September 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

There needs to be a murder mystery slasher movie set during the retreat like yesterday.
posted by The Whelk at 9:15 PM on September 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

most unique

For that, they deserve to sink under the waves.
posted by LarryC at 9:20 PM on September 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

I put my feet in Lake Superior. For about a half of an instant. In August. It is chill. I bet that the winters on that island are really something else, the wind cutting across that lake, those short short northern winter days getting you back into the cabin at 4:00 or 4:30, hopefully in front of a fire. I believe it'd be great but I believe it'd be interesting, also, cabin fever.
posted by dancestoblue at 9:27 PM on September 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Rabbit Island is where hammers go to heaven.
posted by ian1977 at 9:29 PM on September 21, 2011

One person trying to create the perfect murder mystery thriller with a whole cast of mystery novel experts as thier prey, I call it...Paper Cuts.
posted by The Whelk at 9:30 PM on September 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

So do I bring my own weed or will my weed be provided for me?
posted by LordSludge at 9:38 PM on September 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

Finding the weed stock before dawn is indeed...The Most Dangerous Game.
posted by The Whelk at 9:52 PM on September 21, 2011

So do I bring my own weed or will my weed be provided for me?

If this group has any sense whatsoever, getting the first planting of marijuana in will be job one. Food, fresh water, sanitation, and shelter need to get in queue behind the first mission critical task of any right-thinking collective.
posted by Meatbomb at 10:10 PM on September 21, 2011

They already have bookshelves. They just need a book on how to grow weed.

How long until someone starts licking a rock?
posted by arcticseal at 10:23 PM on September 21, 2011

Taking over/under bets on whether the the drum circle room at this place is cooler than the one here.

Trick bet: The entirety of Rabbit island is drum-space; the concept of confining primal drumming in a mere room is a small minded conceit.
posted by porpoise at 10:42 PM on September 21, 2011

I was having a private snark to myself over this bit:

-Transportation to the island.This includes the very important boat! We plan on buying one second-hand from somebody in the local area so we’ll be able to access the island and transport materials t here.

-Chainsaws and an Alaskan/portable saw-mill.The island is heavily forested and we want to create sustainably by using what is locally available. We’ve already worked with an arborist and forestry planner and will continue to work with them to develop a plan to select a small amount of trees from the island which will be processed into sustainably harvested, finished timber using the minimal tools that we have on site.

But since a few other people have commented on the dangerous boat problems...

It started to read like Gazza's drunken inventory during the Raul Moat siege.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 10:59 PM on September 21, 2011

My stepfather used to live and work on a real, remote rabbit island in the Gulf of Alaska, Middleton Island. It's a small, grassy island with no rabbit predators (unless you count people), and has always been uninhabited except for those working on government installations of equipment (mostly navigational).

The rabbit population has been studied. There's an article locked away on jstor, but Alaska's European rabbits have been written about elsewhere, including info about Middleton: "Three female and one male rabbit placed on Middleton Island in 1954 multiplied like rabbits until their descendants numbered between 3,600 and 7,000 in 1961."
posted by D.C. at 11:13 PM on September 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

looks like it is in the same vague area of Superior as Stannard Rock, on which I've long wanted to do a FPP about it's history, which is pretty badass.

I live on the shores of Superior. I hope these folks do well, but they got some of the worst weather of the year coming on top of their ass in about 6 weeks.

Been spending a fair bit of time (on the mainland) in the area they are talking about, (Houghton, Calumet etc) this summer, it is absolutely gorgeous.

I am also only five months away from swimming, or dipping in the lake every month for a year, worst months to come. and swimming in Superior in summer if fantastic
posted by edgeways at 12:06 AM on September 22, 2011

So where do I sign up for this residency? Or do you get it, just by getting to the island and refusing to leave.



I'm serious.
posted by alex_skazat at 12:15 AM on September 22, 2011 [2 favorites]

Keweenaw weed is legendary and plentiful. And it looks like they are rolling with the farm block crowd so they definitely won't go wanting.
posted by grizzly at 12:54 AM on September 22, 2011

-Chainsaws and an Alaskan/portable saw-mill. The island is heavily forested and we want to create sustainably by using what is locally available.

Nice wooden bookshelves. Nice wooden wall.

I've spent a bit of time clicking on links looking for the island's sustainable wood being milled, with no luck at all. So far I've seen:

• Pictures of hammers hanging on a rack
• Pictures of an axe in a box
• Pictures of a dude posing with the axe
• The axe being described as the most beautiful axe EVARR

Someone save me some time and show me some of the actual sustainable trees being turned into stuff.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 1:03 AM on September 22, 2011 [2 favorites]

Minecraft LARP?
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 1:06 AM on September 22, 2011 [5 favorites]

The first thing they need to do is clear a landing pad for that Coast Guard helicopter to land on when some urban fool artiste misuses a tool and needs a hospital.
posted by mareli at 6:06 AM on September 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

After a while they have to summon an outsider every few years to ensure the hemp crop thrives.
posted by The Whelk at 7:03 AM on September 22, 2011 [2 favorites]

Painters are soaked with chemicals. Musicians have good dexterity and wind. Dancers are quite strong. Poets are probably very tender.

It's good to think these things through ahead of time.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:44 AM on September 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

After a while they have to summon an outsider every few years to ensure the hemp crop thrives.

I just pictured Nicholas Cage being drowned in a gigantic bong and now I am happy.
posted by griphus at 10:05 AM on September 22, 2011 [2 favorites]

KILLING ME WONT BRING YOUR BUZZ BACK
posted by The Whelk at 10:34 AM on September 22, 2011

If I had time, I would seriously enter their architecture competition. What an opportunity! (I think that actually dealing with them would drive me crazy, though.)
posted by Specklet at 10:51 AM on September 22, 2011

Damn. Reading this sort of thing always sends me on a weeklong reverie, wondering what the fuck I am doing sitting in front of this god damn box, suppressed, with my back to the world for so much of my life.
posted by dirtdirt at 11:22 AM on September 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

KILLING ME WONT BRING YOUR BUZZ BACK

NOT THE RABBITS! NOT THE RABBITS!

*gargles rabbits*
posted by cereselle at 1:17 PM on September 22, 2011