[originally posted on my reallybigroadtrip blog]
I just shared the first #hammocktime output over on my blog and the facebook page for that project. Instead of just re-blogging that same post here I wanted to say something about the experience as a whole.
In light of the consistent bullshit going on in the world (especially in Australia’s part of the world) this little ‘active questioning’ project in amongst the glorious already-get-it WOMADelaide community does nothing to change anything. But it’s a start.
hammocktime is my first personal work where I actively step up and start dialogue within the experience itself. It’s a reminder for others that they’re not alone, that WE are not alone. It speaks to what I have learned in my life as a whole, but specifically what I have learned through my own “lifestyle choice” of nomadicy, choosing to live in a bus instead of maintaining a proper job and a proper home.
#buslife is not always easy but it always teaches you something if you are prepared to listen. I have had the most incredible amount of support and advice getting me through this transition from so very many people. I’m super grateful for the opportunity and will never forget the crowdfunding campaign contributors and everyone who has enabled all this to happen. hammocktime is just the first reveal of the tendrils from these past three years’ learnings, and for that I am pretty proud. But it’s far from the end.
In order for real change to take place we need to be kind to ourselves, to reconnect with ourselves, with the land and with others. Hammocks are an act of self-kindness, taking time out for oneself without distraction (especially by banning mobile devices from them!). Providing a meditation experienced whilst suspended in trees rooted deeply within land (once home to a people far far older than my own culture) delivered by a human not a set of headphones, meant something.
The active questioning, those three simple questions, are my way of bringing all that loveliness into a focused form, an output that can be shared. Dropping them in to a word cloud is such a simple device but it spreads a cluster of positive energy out there, which we all need as times get increasingly darker.
Presenting this version at WOMADelaide was just the start, I’ll be taking the project to different communities and repeating the same questions. The easiest thing in the world would be to continue targeting like-minded communities and festivals, but I’ll be working to break out of that safety zone. Busking hammocktime in various forms during my Perth residency with cia studios taught me a lot about arts and non arts audiences, activist and non-activist campaigners. I’d like to gather as much of a diversity as I can possibly make happen.
Let’s reclaim the world. Now.
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