dreaming our futures
dream archive
songspell for we do this together.
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 we do this together. 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 arm in motion. our libretto, co-crafted by all, floats to the top left. sound descriptions by danilo machado float to the bottom right 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.
we are going to co‑craft a songspell now together that holds the sort of anchor messages that we want to hold on to and remember and welcome into our dream space and into our lives.
and so to sort of give us a little insight and beginning space, i’m going to shuffle and select a card from my dreaming our futures + embodying our dreams oracle//composition deck which shares a little crip dream for finding grounding and goodness through ableist chaos.
i’ll be shuffling and whatever comes up, if it resonates with you, you can feel free to think about it in relation to a dream for us to collectively dream. and if it doesn’t resonate with you, that’s also totally okay, you’re welcome to share anything you’d like to dream about. and that includes anything you may have already said that you want to be part of the songspell and part of the libretto we are co‑crafting.
i’m just shuffling here. the cards are sort of the size of my hands so i’m leaning them against my side to give them a little mixing up. okay. i am just putting the deck back down and this card is a little faint. it says: we do this together. and it’s a collection of little dotted lines that form many different interlocking triangles and they’re all in this very sort of pale purply pinky very pastel, faint. the shapes are a little bit like mountain tops that are like jagged above and below. and this idea for me of we do this together ‑‑ for me it’s happening right now. for me it’s a dream that i’ve been dreaming on for a long time of having this intimate community space to connect from bed and to know that even when we are in our sort of solo spaces or you know without maybe as much like outside support as we might like, that we’re still doing this, there’s still an interdependence, we’re still doing this together.
doing whichever “this” verb you wanna throw in. it can be whatever feels good for you. for me, it’s this dreaming moment and this space for just being in a collective community care moment. just being here and doing something in a way where the whole point is that we’re all experiencing it together. so as far as like what that might mean in terms of a collective dream moment, what are things maybe that you’ve been feeling like you’ve had to do alone that maybe there’s a sort of thinking about who else is also doing that? is it alone? or am i counting sort of the tree outside (that i love to look at) is doing it with me, we’re sort of in tandem at the moment. is it alone? are there other happenings that are happening that is a togetherness in one way, shape, or form or another? just a bit of, i guess, a bit of a reframing towards all of the ways that the interconnections are happening even when we’re not completely conscious of them. and sort of calling for the maybe like bird’s eye view of what that interconnectivity is and then more consciously being able to access that togetherness and then actively, hopefully, potentially, weave and thread through more very sort of like physical interconnectedness. and physical in terms of any way that you know – digital physicality or physical physicality or any type of – whatever that means to you, whatever form that takes for you.
so what i’m gonna do is i’m just gonna write “we do this together”. i’m gonna ‑‑ oh – situate myself here. if there’s anyone who wants to share any thoughts, dreams, spells, anything around either this idea of we do this together or anything that comes up and that resonates with you or that feels like that’s something you wanna sort of carry with you, carry forward, you can feel free to unmute to speak or to type up into the chat anything that you might like to add to this songspell that we’re co-crafting together.
we do this together
having successful surgeries
feeling better and freer
contentment and harmony
together we melt the ICE
we breathe together
we do not have to do this alone
make art like mutual aid
GET HUNGRY
TAKE BITES
i’m hoping for more community
answers for my health
and more time
for doing what i love
dreaming of more comfort in my body
dreaming of collaborative art
that strengthens and sustains community
i want to share something
from my treasure chest
of helpfulness
let the world know what you need
and when you do
people may respond
and give what they need
if you do not let that be known
it may be more difficult to achieve
than necessary getting help
i am not alone
i am in the company of redwoods
spiders in their little hammocks
moss nestled in crevices
fat caterpillars munching milkweed
monarch wings shimmering awake in the sunshine
bury your hands deep into wet sand
root into waving bull kelp
pores filled with rich dark dirt
root before you move
rest before you grow
care for ourselves
together we can encourage each other
to fill our own cups
peace and little bird flying
we have more than enough
if we share
circles of care
everyone giving what they have
and taking what they need
those with extra standing up
for those with none at all
i don’t wanna do discernment alone
for safety and security
turning private discernment
(faulty, biased,
prone to paranoia)
into public discernment
(a system of balance)
like a “two heads
r better than one”
vibe
by extension
sharing of knowledge
as a common language
rather than hoarding knowledge
for private gain
a spell for us
to be feeling access intimacy
every day
contentment, harmony
well-being
the answer to all of my problems
and pathway to my dreams
just might be to do the thing
that nags at my neglected core
conjuring a worldwide
crip coven cult polycule
for mutual support
and worship
love and desire
desire for life
sound description by danilo machado.
[sound check tests of strings and hums]
[slow warm humming tones by alexa]
[strumming joins the humming, building and reverbing]
[playful interjections of toy instruments]
[tones are quirky and optimistic]
[alexa’s tiny xylophone twinkles, the humming continues]
[alexa Dings the toy rotary, dialing the number for this song spell]
[humming overlaps and envelops the more dissonant sounds]
[alexa begins singing the words of the spell, other casters join in on “together,” together]
[alexa enlongates freeeeeeeer]
[strings string along like music sheets]
[overlapping voices return between the strings]
[alexa returns to twinkling the toy xylophone]
[lower register echoes below middle strings and higher pitched toy instruments]
[the keys stumble upon each other but still find their way, find their way back]
[plucking remains, has become grounded among the mossy voices]
[“moss nesessled in crevices”]
[voices nestle]
[more voices are added atop each other]
[a wave of voices builds and crashes]
[distortion and repetition blur and reassure, reiterate]
[some voices sound closer, others far away]
[bubbling and bursting voices]
[voices sweet and assuring]
[strumming and crescendo voices]
[alexa winds a toy music box to add to the overlap of voices]
[a few keys of a toy piano]
[the rotary phone jostles loud]
[“you are not alone” and “I love you” both repeat because they are the same thing]
[sound turns to quiet, to silence]
group portrait <3
