Photo credit: Jered Genova

Performance at Rising Waters II Confab, Rauschenberg Residency, Captiva, FL, May 2016 (thematic residency of artists, scientists, philosophers, architects, and urban planners discussing the solutions and responses to the rising waters of climate change)

Jared Genova and I did a test run of the Free Rising Water Therapy session on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico, an impromptu experiment in addressing the possible ignorance, denial, and anxieties that the rising water might provoke on any coastal areas.

First we psychoanalyzed each other, which helped us enable each other in the face of the waves lapping at our chairs. Jared expressed his concern over the deep seated inequities in New Orleans and other coastal cities that leave the poor more vulnerable as storms and rising ocean water encroach. We had visitors who spoke of the eroding effects of hurricane Charlie and the toxic effects of the red tide the following year.  They surprised us in describing Vet-Tech, a training company for veterans to get off the ground with tech startups (some with environmental ethic). We held group therapy with young visitors who sat with us and discussed the interrelated mesh of politics, recycling, the military, national ethics, urban planning for climate change and ancient sea level changes. They seemed enlivened by our discussion although their ideas clashed with ours at times.

In later Free Rising Water Therapy sessions with Marina Zurkov during a beach performance event, Marina and I provided more tangible solutions for people to get more involved with local, state, and national government and organizations to help prepare for future problems involved with rising sea levels in coastal areas.