Zone of Exaggerated Dreaming is a multisensory performance set in the abyssal ocean, thinking about deep-sea economy and invention under pressure. Words appear in the dark, float in sound, interact with slime, light, smoke, scent, sea water, sequins, ceramic nodules glazed in manganese.
From the Greek abyssos meaning “the great depth, the underworld, the bottomless pit”, the abyssal ocean is most of the world, 95% of the volume of Earth’s biosphere. It exists in permanent darkness, apart from inhabitants who make light in their bodies, about 76% of known creatures in the deep sea.
The vast, dark majority of the biosphere does not belong to anyone, most of it lying outside national jurisdictions. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), an international agreement established in the 1950s, provides the legal framework for human intervention in the sea. The name given by UNCLOS to everything that lies outside national jurisdiction, that is, most of the world, is “The Area.” It is in The Area this work takes place, in a manganese nodule field.
Read the full artist statement hereWritten and performed by Erin Robinsong
Sound design Cosmo Sheldrake
Text advisor and outside eye Sina Queyras
Photography Flora Wallace
Nodules created in Flora Wallace’s studio, with special thanks to Flora for glazing expertise
With the support of
Created with the support of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society & Culture (CISSC) Humanities PhD at Concordia University, and by funding from SSHRC.