Soul (Re)cycling with Raccoons in Human-Time

"It’s a full-moon evening, raccoons!

Today, we will learn how to survive in human-time."

"Soul (Re)cycling with Raccoons in Human-Time" (2020) was created while in self-isolation during the pandemic. The piece was inspired from taking short nightly walks around the block and sharing moments of pause, locking eyes with numerous nocturnal scavengers in the neighborhood dumpster.

The work positions a (non)human raccoon as a speculative fitness instructor and playfully remixes zoological studies with language from the tele-fitness industry, specifically that of indoor cycling classes and live stream workout products. By embodying the persona of a raccoon, speaking to and from them on “how to survive human-time,” the (non)human performance becomes a complex site for tending to an improbable future, troubling the fragility of timescales — which time are “we” ready to survive in and whose survival are “we” preparing for. In short, the project intends to explore the indeterminacy of cohabitation-in-the-making for survival: the absurd processes of anthropomorphization that helps humans reimagine kinship with nonhumans and the necessity to share resources and maintain a balanced relationship with all (non)living beings in the biosphere for coexistence.