coming soon
This ongoing project (2012–) consists of interviews with friends and strangers—mostly current or former South Florida residents—about reoccurring or otherwise memorable dreams, specifically those that allude to the ocean, sea-level rise, and climate anxiety. (Water, tidal waves, and communion with the spirit world have been common themes.)
Carl Jung and Gaston Bachelard believed that water dreams represent memory and the subconscious; Florida, then, might be the deeper subconscious of the US: a watery peninsula typically characterized by outsiders (and residents) as baffling and absurd. Truthfully, it’s prognostic, representing environmental and sociopolitical issues that’ll continue to affect the rest of the planet. With the rise and fall of the Everglades and the surrounding ocean, time doesn’t feel linear here. The cycles of rebirth are always visible.
Dreams are potentially meaningless—and yet, I feel that these dreams can constitute as data, as proof of the many ways in which we are psychosomatically affected by impending climate crisis. Perhaps they might also act as calls to action, from deep in our psyches, to find ways to care for the planet and imagine new possibilities for our future.