# Paint the planet *The print lab has a new season. It opened on 31 October 2026 (UTC). Instead of a wall there is a globe with 160 spots on it. You pick one, say what the weather is doing and which season it is, choose how it should be painted, and the lab paints that place three times with a different creature in each: one alive today, one long gone, one imagined. You keep one, and once a person has looked, it hangs on the globe for the whole season. No account, nothing to sign up for. This page walks through a visit in the lab's own words.* *Published 2026-11-08 (UTC) · A small (human) team and a fleet of AI agents.* **the short version:** the print lab's new season is called paint the planet; on its front page it is season two. It opened on 31 October 2026 (UTC) and ends when the globe is full, or on 30 December 2026 (UTC), whichever comes first. A painted globe has 160 spots, in open country, on open coasts and at sea, with no towns and nobody in them. You pick one, then the weather, the season and one of six painting styles, and the lab paints the same scene three times. Only the creature changes: one alive today, one long gone, one imagined, from an old story or made up by the workshop itself. You keep one. A person looks at it and, if it passes, it hangs on the globe where you made it, with a short write-up about the creature under it, its real-world facts checked, and that creature does not come up again this season. Nobody signs up for anything. The door is [printlab.strata2signal.com](https://printlab.strata2signal.com). 1,332 words · about 6 minutes (at 220 words/min) · 0 tables · data kit: no https://research.strata2signal.com/paint-the-planet/ --- *If you're new here: [strata→signal](https://strata2signal.com) is a small workshop that runs its own machines. The [print lab](https://printlab.strata2signal.com) is where its machines paint pictures, built for friends and family on a tablet on the couch; its front page lists every season, and [How the print lab works](https://research.strata2signal.com/how-the-print-lab-works/) explains its darkroom, the part that paints, from the inside, as it ran for the first season. This page is about the new season only.* ## A globe instead of a wall {#a-globe-instead-of-a-wall} The print lab's first season was a wall of 144 pictures, sealed on 30 September 2026 (UTC) and still there to look at. This season a globe takes its place. The front page has one panel for each season. The new one is labelled **Season two**, named **paint the planet**, and begins: **A globe of spots in open country, open coast and open sea — no towns, and nobody in them.** Every spot takes one picture. When the last is painted, or on 30 December 2026 (UTC), the globe is finished and stays up to look at. ![The print lab's front page: its opening line about the darkroom, then the season-two card, a painted map of the Earth above the words Season two and paint the planet, the season's few lines, the line saying 158 of 160 spots are still open, and the Into the exhibit button.](images/landing-season-two-820.jpg) **the front page's season-two panel: the painted map of the Earth, "Season two", "paint the planet", its few lines and the "Into the exhibit" button; 158 of 160 spots still open, shot 2026-11-06 (UTC)** ## Pick a spot {#pick-a-spot} Tap **Into the exhibit**. The globe's page says: **A globe of open spots — pick one and paint it.** Tap **Paint a spot**. The globe turns under your finger, and every dot on it is a place. It says **Pick an open spot**, then: **Open country, open coast, open sea — no towns, and nobody in them. The spot gives the scenery.** A spot has no name on a map, only a few words like *warm beach, 30° north*: how warm it is, what kind of ground it is, and how far up or down the world it sits. If you cannot decide, tap **Pick a spot for me**. Tap a dot and it asks: *warm beach, 30° north* **is open — paint it?** Then tap **Next**. Under the globe, **All the spots, north to south** lists them in thirteen folded groups like *warm spots, north*; tap a group's name to open it. ![The globe page with a spot picked: the question warm beach, 30° north is open — paint it? above the Roll the rest and Next buttons; under them the Globe and Map buttons, the painted globe turned to the Atlantic with its open spots marked by red dots and one painted spot by a small picture, and the legend: open, spoken for, painted, withdrawn.](images/globe-spot-41-820.jpg) **the globe with a spot being picked: "warm beach, 30° north is open — paint it?" with "Roll the rest" and "Next", over the globe and its dots, shot 2026-11-06 (UTC)** ## Then the weather, the season and the style {#weather-season-style} **What's the weather doing there?** Ten choices, from *still and clear* and *low fog* to *fresh snow*, *far thunder* and *starlit*. You can put snow on a beach; the lab paints what you pick. **Which season?** Spring, summer, autumn or winter. In the bottom half of the world it says: **This spot is in the southern half of the world, so the seasons run the other way round. Winter there is June to August.** **How should it be painted?** Six styles: *oil painting*, *watercolour*, *woodcut print*, *picture book*, *ink and wash* and *cut paper*. Every step from the spot onward has **Roll the rest**: it chooses what is left for you, like dice, and you can still change any of them. ## Three pictures, one surprise {#three-pictures-one-surprise} The last screen shows your choices and says: **The three paintings share one scene and differ in one thing: the creature, usually one from this part of the world. That's the surprise.** Tap **Paint it three ways — uses one of today's pictures** and wait about twenty seconds. Three paintings arrive together. In the first stands a creature that is **alive today**. In the second, one that is **long gone**: an animal that lived long ago, sometimes millions of years ago. In the third, one that is **imagined**: a creature from an old story, usually one told in that part of the world, or one the workshop made up itself, and the lab says which. Under each is its name, one fact, and how it was chosen: **One of** so many **from** that part of the world. The creatures come from a list of more than six hundred, chosen first from that part of the world, then from the same kind of place, then from anywhere on Earth. ## Keep one {#keep-one} **Three paintings of one spot, a different creature in each. Keep one, and once a person has looked, it hangs on the globe. The other two go.** Tap **Keep this one**, or tap **None of these — let them go** and paint again. The lab says **Kept — it's drying.** and explains: **A person looks at every picture before it hangs on the globe, within a day or two.** Come back later on the same device and the page says **It's up.** If the person says no to it, the page says so, and the spot is open again. Only the day it was kept is written on the back of the picture, never the time. Once it hangs, that creature does not come up again this season. Each home can paint up to three times a day, three pictures each time, but keeping one ends it: **keep one, and the day's painting is done.** ## What you learn {#what-you-learn} Under a hung picture sit two short paragraphs about the creature, a list headed **Worth knowing** with three facts, and **Sources**, linking to where the real-world facts can be checked. Every one of those was checked before the season opened; any that could not be backed up was cut or rewritten. A made-up creature's lore is made up, and its first paragraph says so. ![A hung picture opened: the spinifex dragon, painted as a long lizard whose back is a mass of dry golden grass, lying on red desert sand under a pale moon; under it the word imagined, two paragraphs about the creature, a Worth knowing list of three facts, three Sources links, the Send this and Close buttons and the Report this print link.](images/hung-spinifex-dragon-820.jpg) **a hung picture opened, the spinifex dragon, a creature the workshop made up: the plate, its two paragraphs, Worth knowing and Sources under it, shot 2026-11-06 (UTC)** ## Nothing to sign up for {#nothing-to-sign-up-for} No account, no name, no email. The lab counts pictures by home, not by person, and forgets even that after two days. Its share page puts it this way: **Nothing about you comes with it — no account, no name, no address kept.** ## How to visit {#how-to-visit} Open [printlab.strata2signal.com](https://printlab.strata2signal.com) on a phone, a tablet or a computer. Find **Season two**, tap **Into the exhibit**, then **Paint a spot**. The globe updates once an hour, so a new picture takes a while to show for everyone. ## What this cannot say {#what-this-cannot-say} How the globe is drawn, how the creatures are chosen and how the pictures are checked belong on a second, more technical page. When it is up, a dated line below will link it. ## Who ran this, and thanks {#who-ran-this-and-thanks} The pictures are painted by **FLUX.2 klein 4B** (Black Forest Labs, Apache 2.0) on one graphics card the workshop owns, an EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 Ultra (24 GB). The globe's map and coastlines come from **Natural Earth**, free for anyone to use (public domain). A small human team chose the six styles and looks at every picture before it hangs; a fleet of AI agents wrote about the creatures, checked their facts and built the season under the team's decisions. The season opened on Saturday 31 October 2026 (UTC). ## Sources {#sources} - **The print lab**, its front page, one panel for each season: https://printlab.strata2signal.com - **The exhibit**, the globe itself: https://printlab.strata2signal.com/exhibit - **How the print lab works**, the hub's explainer, written for the first season: https://research.strata2signal.com/how-the-print-lab-works/ - **Our records:** the print lab's own copy pack (every bold sentence above, word for word) and its specs at version 0.50.0, the build that added the front page on 6 November 2026 (UTC); its season fixture (160 spots, ten weathers, four seasons, six styles, the creatures, their write-ups and their checked facts), unchanged since version 0.48.0, the build made for the opening. - **Natural Earth**, the public-domain map data under the globe: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/ - **FLUX.2 klein 4B**, the painter, Apache 2.0: https://huggingface.co/black-forest-labs/FLUX.2-klein-4B *Corrections and later readings will be added below, each dated (UTC), saying in plain words what they show.*