Video Collection, 2021
As we increasingly comprehend the outcomes of climate crisis and technological saturation, our illusions of a linear and controllable future are slipping away. Rather than resigning to the apathy and apocalypticism that doom culture thrives on, I Pretend I Do Not See It But In Reality I Do asks if acknowledging this unknowing could unlock redemptive ways of seeing the future that are hopeful, playful, and multiplicitious. Through use of ASMR, this ongoing video collection imagines potential climate crisis and techno-saturation futures through speculative roleplay scenarios. These ASMR roleplays reimagine anxiety-inducing possible futures through acts of care and sensory immediacy, tickling the ears and calming the nerves. Envisioning unforeseeable futures with the care, humour, and empathy of ASMR, this ever-growing digital archive attempts to bring light to the unpredictable, and seek visions of the future beyond doom and apocalypse through radical empathy and redemptive possibility.
This work was developed and is made across the unceded lands of the Gadigal, Bidjigal, and Wangal peoples of the Eora nation.