dreaming our futures
dream archive
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 playfulness. 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 my dreaming our futures + embodying our dreams oracle//composition deck in my hands and i’m just going to be shuffling them. each card shares a little dream for anchoring ourselves through ableist chaos and can also be read as a graphic musical score which i will use to help shape our songspell and our base for dreaming with.
and so i’m just shuffling to see if there is any insight on a theme for us to dream around together and you’re welcome to dream about anything that you like. So if whatever comes up isn’t resonating with you, no worries, feel free to bring any dreams, any spells, any wishes, any prayers that you’d like to bring. but if you want a little extra sort of guiding theme, then i’m just shuffling and i’ll pull one of these cards for us and we’ll see what comes up. oh, okay. this one is actually my favorite one. so it’s a card that reads playfulness and it’s sort of a little bit of a kind of misshapen circular shape with a bunch of small rainbow colored little kind of almost floral shapes that are scattered around inside of this sort of bright pink misshapen circle. and there are also some white glitch spaces that are like little rectangles and lines that are glitched out on the inside of this misshapen circle shape. and i really love that playfulness has come up because i think that there’s always space and there’s always room for a mindset of having more play, of having a sense of wonder and letting that loom its way into space and also reshape some of the things that like harden over or maybe that maybe got stuck. or that maybe ‑‑ yeah, are challenging. like how much more ease and how more much joy is welcomed into even the most ‑‑ even the most undesirable situations when there’s an element of play that can come into the space with us. so yeah, this is a little dream for welcoming in any sense of playfulness, any extra areas of joy.
what i’m going to do is there’s a little spell poem that goes along with this card. so i’m just searching for it here so i can read that as well. okay. so this spell poem reads:
playfulness
decentering
reason + practicality
for shimmering
whims + fancies
and i’ll read that again. it says:
playfulness
decentering
reason + practicality
for shimmering
whims + fancies
and i just want to add to that, that i think there’s sort of a lightness and a silliness that is just very like an uplifting and also empowering space that grows from a sense of playfulness where possibility makes itself open. there is more possibility in the world. the more there is play, there is more experimentation, there’s more space for things that are new or different or more beautiful or just more space. i think there is just more space the more that there is this element of playfulness. so i’m really channeling that and really happy that sort of surfaced as like a little message. yeah.
what i’m going to do is now i’m just going to write down playfulness. okay. i don’t know what i did. i used ‑‑ okay. so sorry. we are having a moment here but i’m getting there. okay. okay. i’m writing playfulness down. and if there is anything that’s a message that you want to carry forward, a dream, a spell, a prayer, that can relate to playfulness or it can relate to anything else. it can be any dream, any message, anything that you want us to really be anchored around. and to be with. you can feel free to share. you can unmute to speak or add it to the chat and it will join our little libretto and become lyrics for our songspell.
playfulness
inject playfulness
into my daily life
lighter and rippling outwards
may i find
my voice again
so i can sing
with you
keeping the playful way
in which children see the world
keeping the playful way
we interact with each other
forever
i lose myself in joy
and find my way back
embrace the playful
spirit of the warm season
that has come for us
play is without control
play is practice to be brave in safety
play is resistance to oppression
play is how we practice being free
does a kite go out
to play in the wind
or does the wind invite
the kite to play?
smiling to strangers
endless compliments
favorite song lyrics
finding money
when you do not have none
crunching less
and the space is opening
play is p trickster time
time to fail and grow
laugh and feel
looking for play
in more spaces
using every tool as a toy
play; watering
seeds of joy and connection . . .
seeking potential for whimsy
to pivot awful moments
into opportunities for magic
making a mess
making a mess
making a mess
and enjoying every minute of it
every minute of it
compositing it all . . .
into soil for tiny flowers
playfulness is being here
playfulness is being now
making a mess
making a mess
making a mess
making a mess
and enjoying every minute of it
every minute of it
every minute of it
every minute of it
every minute of it
sound description by Hayley Ku’unani.
[alexa dexa cranks up the toy record player to set a joyful lullaby-esque scene for our playful songspell]
[nostalgic, manual tones transform through the portal of maxmsp, layering, enveloping, reverbed and reversed into reverie]
[a soothing melodic hum mothers the inner children of the essence of conjured playfulness]
[shakes shatter, ping-ponged and lag into rhythmic rooms of potential]
[toy dinosaurs stomp dynamically injecting whimsy]
[thumb pianos pluck preciously]
[nuanced textures of vocalisations, gurgles and mumbles whisper secrets revealing play]
[tapping and scratching contrast ethereal vocalisations, transpiring the manifestation of playful realities]
[revs of vocals and bells build and swell painting texture and colour]
[recorded recorders sing and shine through percussive layers of tactile tectonic technology]
[the thumb piano plucks and plays a descendinig melody]
[claps bounce around like the simple games of a playground circa pre-tech simplicity]
[holy hums weave between the building and budding textures]
[squelchy reversals bounce around the patch]
[alexa dexa begins the libretto melting into the textural playful sonic landscape]
[tapping textures pop like popcorn panned to the right, a fantastic feast of audio treats]
[reversals of chimes and toy instruments blend and bloom into a watercolour symphony of varied textures and colours]
[the toy record player sound emerges like a casino of dopamine spinning addictive dizzy delight]
[binaural beauty envelopes, pops, undulates and reveals the multiplicities of simple sounds into symphony]
[waves glitch and reverse and bells bellow tender twinkles]
[a recorder merges with human vocalisations inviting a deeper sense of presence and playfulness]
[tosses of weighted textures bounce between hands]
[tides of tones ebb and flow between harmony and dissonance]
[cranks of toys teleport nostalgic textures to simpler times]
[ambient currents melt into sighs of relief]
[frictioned hands rub rhythmically clapping and slapping into elation]
[shuffles of tones support alexa dexa’s tender melodies]
[echoes and harmonies wash the digital portal of playful experimentation]
[the toy record spins as shakes of maracas and percussion pierce passionately into an effervescent soundscape]
[reversals mesh against nondescript vocalisations glitching with glee]
[hoots of the recorder wind down into the increasing void]
[toy dinosaurs dance before tapping fingers take over a metal boxed stage]
[babbles of bells and twinkles spotlight before the melding of melodies of playful oneness]
[human hums and vocalisations spread across the foundation of sound building upon the circular rhythmic realms]
[gentle vocalisations swell and swirl against notes of instruments unknown]
[a beckoning of bouncing bells texture the space before the invitational calls of the recorder in the distance]
[crashing comedy parades and pervades truly embodying the essence of play]
[toy music boxes pluck and prime a melting pot of joy]
[extra terrestrial tones rise, fall and follow alchemically simmering sounds]
[gentle tones trickle, trickle and tease – an audio candy]
[vocals and recorder re-enter the playful realm]
[an amalgamation of joyful sounds swell and surrender into potent potion]
[toy instruments takeover and turn in digital delight]
[vocalisations begin to trickle into the soundscape beneath the ricochet of texture tones and blooming bells]
[notes wiggle and squiggle into an eventual silence]
group portrait <3
