The Museum of the Essential and Beyond That was created by Brazilian artist and scholar Regina Célia Pinto. Devised as a museum with many rooms and secret locations holding born-digital literature, net art, and other digital art forms, it was created with Flash and offered an interactive experience. A map guides visitors through the Basement, two Floors, an area called Paris Connection, the Attic, and many others. Rooms are further divided into sections by name of author or by a work’s category. Visitors can interact with an animated Elevator, check out the Games section, visit the Administrative Offices where they can use the Toilets. Works can just as easily be found in the Toilet’s bowl as they can be found at the Lake situated within the office suites.
In 2018 Pinto donated the local files for all of the works in the Museum to the Electronic Literature Lab with support from ELO board members Marjorie Luesebrink and Stephanie Strickland. They were held in the ELO Repository at the Electronic Textual Cultures Lab before moving to the ELO server in 2019.
