dreaming our futures
dream archive
songspell for coming back to cycles.
video description: a songspell ripples and envelopes, cozy and warm, co-crafted and cast in care-filled crip community for dreaming our futures + embodying our dreams. we’re dreaming of coming back to cycles. soft blurs of green and golden fabric (shaped into alexa dexa’s bed opera costume by Rebirth Garments) shimmer and slowly shift with the peach pink of alexa dexa’s body in motion. our libretto, co-crafted by all, floats to the top. sound descriptions by Hayley Ku’unani float to the bottom within brackets. all text is handwritten by alexa dexa, half-script scribbles and etches. sounds are shared by alexa dexa and their toychestra, our gorgeous crip community, and live electronic processing in maxmsp.
i’ve got in my hands my dreaming our futures + embodying our dreams oracle//composition deck, which each card shares a little dream for just navigating and finding, finding new paths inside of and outside of complete chaos as well as a little dream map that can be read as a graphic musical score and that i’ll read as we’re co‑casting our songspell.
so i’m just shuffling these cards. thinking about a dream that we can dream on together if it feels good. and you’re also welcome to dream any dreams that are nice for you. doesn’t have to be this one. okay. so i’m selecting a card. okay. i’m lifting it over my head so that it’s a little bit in frame. it’s a card that reads “come back to cycles” and there is a crayon drawing that’s got a little like glitch computer moment happening in its design. it’s a bunch of sort of smaller circles that are made with thin lines that come together, so many individual thin lines coming together in such a way that when they congregate, a circle is sort of formed. and they’re sort of not super symmetrically happening across the open face of the card in all the colors of the rainbow, very pastel. and there’s also sort of like ghost imprints of each of the circles. they’re sort of also like a ghost imagery. a white version that sort of shadows each of the little circles.
come back to cycles is an interesting space as we’re moving between the cycles of our seasons, as we’re cycling sort of out of winter and forward into springtime. as we’re thinking about some of the dreams that folks have been sharing about — i think coming back to cycles, when i’m thinking about this, and again, in connection with some of the things that folks have been saying, i think there’s a lot of sort of calling for regulation — and not like rule regulations but like the regulation of your bodymind. finding the things that are gonna feel good to be doing and that are gonna feel like they root you in this space and time in as much ease as possible, in a rhythm that feels like it’s manageable. but not only manageable, but also like it’s bringing you into space that you want to be in. and so maybe it’s something that you’ve done in the past that you maybe let go of and haven’t been doing but want to come back to. or maybe it’s something that you haven’t done and it’s coming into it as a new cycle and making it a cycle that you can come back to. but in either case, i think that this is really a dream for finding the rhythms and the things that can return to us and that we can return to that bring ease and calm and good feeling and generosity and that really will offer support in what is truthfully a lot of very many chaotic other things happening. so finding this way of creating the energy that we wanna be working with and letting it be this moment of ‑‑ not a singularity, of something that we return to and that returns to us.
so that’s this card. again, it says come back to cycles. and there is a little spell poem that goes along with this card. so i’ll read it. and it says:
come back to cycles
reclamation of time
as defined by
the rhythms and repetitions
of our bodyminds
so i’ll just read it one more time. it says:
come back to cycles
reclamation of time
as defined by
the rhythms and repetitions
of our bodyminds
so with that, i’m gonna write down come back to cycles. and if there’s anything that you want — a message that you want to carry forward that you want to add to our songspell, anything that you want to — a dream that you want to carry forward whether it has to do with cycles or not, if there are any rhythms that you want to be planting here, any seeds you want to be planting, yea, this is space for all of that. you can feel free to share about any ways that you’d like to be dreaming both in our time together and in the time that continues forward.
come back to cycles
reclaiming time
i like the idea
the cycle of health
a big circle
circles within circles
you get to the middle
something to spread the cycles open
an open cycle
where anything can happen
expanding
reclaiming time
by reclaiming agency
over our thoughts
and their forms
i am learning
to follow my heart
every day
not make a list
and cross off each
responsibility
but to ask myself
what i choose
and to respect
my soul’s choices
this is maybe
returning to before
my birth when i was
free and held
learning from compost
rhythms and repetitions
even in uneven
unpredictable cycles
always caught off guard
learn to really be with mindfulness
and embrace each present moment
shifting gears and not imposing
expectations of normalcy
of usual behavior
it’s not negative the way my body
is just rolling
and peace with wherever
my bodymind is at
in each given moment
inspired by
reverse metamorphosis
(bat flies)
very natural
part of their life
journey isn’t linear
shed to survive
then get your wings back
pruning away
what has had its time
and needs to be discarded
allowing for growth
of what is growing and emerging
learning to not expect
any cycle or regularity
and accept living
in the beautiful, colorful
chaos of life
reclaiming energy
by reclaiming time
by reclaiming energy
by reclaiming time
. . .
the magic clock
moving in
ebbs and flows
as an alternative
to “consistency”
repetition is also
a way of keeping time
spiralling
repetition is sacred
flotilla of time and tides
our cells
are constantly
dying and being born
let me let go
of who i was
so i may become
my future self
feeling more care
and trust for myself
in my body
intertidal zones
where change is constant
between wet and dry
are some of the most
diverse, vibrant ecologies
without caution
cycles suck me down
yanked below whirlpools
sinking and drowning
flung in cyclones
snapping and shattering
find a way to
float and bob
gently drifting
then, start to paddle
kicking into speed
spread my arms
and slide and glide
then, push off and lift
and ride the wind
merge with its currents
lean and tilt
and guide my soaring
into a freer realm
sound description by Hayley Ku’unani.
[a gentle hum invites the collective to dream]
[tapping, textures tread a canvas of tempo]
[a collection of strings, strum and echo within the patch followed by a foghorn of bottle blown tone like a conch calling to the sea]
[caresses and stresses of stitches on plushies bring form into the forefront]
[echoed clicks, tick, cycle and rhythm]
[vocalisations ground and weave in the tapestry of co-crafting, a gentle melody of inspiration, respiration and liberation]
[alexa dexa sings the libretto as the collective sound spell envelops and develops]
[gentle strings and plucking of kalimbas compliment one another, reversed and echoed in a distant dialogue]
[reversals and breaths reinforce the theme of cycles and repitition]
[a digital zither joins in the orchestra of collective sound-making]
[a collection of voices transform and merge amongst the layers of the songspell]
[rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-olling tongues purr and peruse the sonic landscape]
[bottled embodied water, shaken, not stirred ripple and rave]
[a whistle reflects the sound of nature, reminiscent of a rainforest of sorts]
[mumbles and murmurs of emotional stirs rinse and repeat courtesy of maxMSP]
[angelic voices lure and enchant building the momentum of the songspell]
[swells of tones, drones and echoes bleed into the abyss of infinite potentiality]
[alexa dexa reintroduces the libretto cocooned by the textural tapping and voices of the collective]
[a portal pirouettes into rhythmic rattles to remind us of the importance of honouring our own rhythms]
[tinkering bells chime and remind]
[alexa dexa breathes life into their toychestral melodica – humanising harmony]
[blended beauty vocal texture cascade into the soundscape]
[the friction of rubbed hands expand and charge]
[flicking, clicking, bountiful blows]
[breaths, blows, swells slow as the merging of melodies receive and reweave]
[whistling waves in vocal sways ebb and flow]
[ethereal elements re-emerge and submerge in delicious and delicate patterns]
[the max patch re-invites and ignites sounds of the session into swirls and layers, glitching in glee]
[pours and plugs of water wash and cleanse, the plastic bottle contorts into pops of colour]
[dah dah dah dah closes the curtain of the songspell]
group portrait <3
