An exploration of the spiritual, political, and sociological meanings of Essential through a series of semi-structured conversations with people.

This project is named “A Collection of Speculative Artifacts” and draws on themes from speculative resistance, movement building, ethical imagination, labor justice. Each word is chosen to reflect the intent of the project. ‘Collection’ is to reflect a non-uniformity in design, length and topic for each audio-art piece. ‘Speculative’ is to root the vision in the possible, in the potential; for example, this could mean creating a vision for a people’s economy, or exploring new ways to discuss safety, consent and joy in social gatherings. Artifact is both a call to reflect on the past that led us here, but also the hope is that this project produces pieces that invite examination and cultural curiosity by listeners and participants in the present and future. 

The primary mechanism for exploring ‘what is essential’ is through a series of conversations with people from different backgrounds — musicians who had to navigate their livelihood, home health care workers living in economic precarity, religious and spiritual leaders, sociologists and social workers, creators in the food industry, activists for racial and economic justice, teachers and others with lived experience. I have contacted a handful of discussants who are excited to share and participate; throughout these conversations, I also plan to be a vulnerable collaborator rather than just an interviewer.

There are many harmful and pervasive narratives that have been present throughout the pandemic and that existed before Covid-19 was part of our daily experience; they often functioned as ways to reduce people to quantitative facts. These narratives are interrelated, but are all rooted in limiting the meaning of what is essential to merely survival, especially for those living in poverty and insecurity.

• Policy makers manufactured a juxtaposition — a competition — between economy and health. This placed the burden of poor outcomes on the same group of marginalized people, who were forced to perform labor in unsafe conditions and risk their health.
• Living and dying were presented as the only two outcomes, rather than acknowledging the complexity of factors that affect well-being.
• We were encouraged to survive rather than thrive — to work but not to gather together. This was essential work without essential celebration.
• Scarcity of resources – government support, tests, other protections – was broadcast without alternatives. “It is what it is.”
• As with other illnesses, “good” behavior was promoted – instead of clarity on understanding structural factors that led to harm. Many people could not “choose” to be safe.

These narratives of harm prolonged suffering and prevented long-term structural change in the ways we rest, heal and support each other. I seek to shift these narratives towards ones where the meaning of essential is rooted in communal and collective thriving; where celebration, music, gathering and creativity are elevated; where people have the opportunity to participate in and shape a shared future.

Rather than approaching this project as a researcher — my day job — I am intentionally creating this project with an activist, participatory mindset. I lead with this value: Art, music, gathering, community and joy are essential for social, physical and emotional flourishing. 

Through this project, I hope to build an audience and a community around challenging narratives of ‘essential as survival’ — a place where we can co-create new visions for the future. The first audience will be other people who I invite into these conversations; these are people already thinking about how the world could be more just, more equitable, more joyful. I hope to support solidarity around these issues so that these conversations lead to movement building and a feeling of belonging.

The main project outcome is a series of audio-art pieces that will be catalogued and shared widely (e.g. soundcloud). These audio-art pieces are the edited and consensual conversations between me and 1-2 people at a time. In preparation for each conversation, I will generate some questions or collaborative themes to guide the conversation; following each conversation, as appropriate, I will write a short sociology-influenced follow-up that highlights any quantitative or qualitative insight into an issue salient to the conversation. I hope to produce two audio-art collaborations each month. Some of the pieces will also be created in Spanish. 

To support digital archiving, I’ll create a website for the project. Participants and collaborators will be welcome to build and add any written, audio or graphical responses to the Collection of Speculative Artifacts. Other examples of interactive work that I have created can be found on my Speculative Resistance page.

In addition to making A Collection of Speculative Artifacts to build solidarity and community, I am creating this project to support my own healing from both pandemic and pre-pandemic times. I experienced isolation, economic and housing insecurity, fear for my family’s safety, mental health issues — situated in a world with unnecessary illness and ever-present death. Although, I was involved in directly addressing equity issues during the pandemic, I increasingly feel that my work is robbed of meaning and impact without parallel and interrelated structural, policy and narrative change. I am also very aware that many, many others experienced more severe hardships, and I am grateful to family, friends and community members who shielded me by offering material basics, while I searched for work and safety.

This work would not be possible with out mentors and patrons. I have asked a friend-collaborator-artist to be involved as a producer for this body of work. This consists of check-in conversations and supporting me in developing additional technical skills so that I can have increased agency and collaborative autonomy in creating, editing and sharing my work — for this project and others. 

Additionally, two community members have generously offered me their San Francisco apartment in the heart of the Mission for several months, at an extremely reduced cost. I view them as patrons who are supporting my creative work, emotional health, and economic resiliency. I experienced housing insecurity before and during the pandemic. Having a beautiful and safe place to heal and create is an essential part of being able to imagine this work on speculative futures and narrative change. Being able to walk out of my door and hear Spanish, music and people is a blessing after many months of isolation.

Ultimately I hope that this project helps me and others to replace hyper-vigilance and trauma with imagination and creativity.