REIMAGINING POSSIBILITIES
THE JOURNEY
As soon as it is safe to do so, we invite you to:
AN INVITATION
As soon as it is safe to do so,
we invite you to:
a) A tea party
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b) Go roller-skating
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c) Dive through a wormhole with us to parallel dimensions where knowledge of the Greenhouse Effect in the 1970s and 1980s was actioned, and many of today’s catastrophic realities of climate change mitigated.
Well, okay then...
Audiences are greeted by spacesuit clad guides and led through an inter-dimensional portal – an exhilarating sensory experience of immersive performance, ever-changing sonic and visual textures. Then, at the border of worlds sits the Multiverse Museum of Curiosities and Artefacts: some shared across dimensions, others marking alternatively climatic, political, institutional, technological, natural and social evolutions.
Taken beyond the normative and fraught climate change politics and paradigms of our world, participants are enjoined to contemplate alternative pasts and futures, to reclaim and interrogate the histories and realities of today's climate crisis, and to rethink and imagine possibilities for informed, sustainable, democratic interventions in the future. This is The Parallel Effect.
This is The Parallel Effect
So, what happens next?
After leaving our perceived reality behind, participants arrive at a border between worlds and are provided with smartphones and headsets which unlock a treasure trove of information in the space before them. Known as a 'pocket universe' this is home to the Multiverse Museum. It's not a museum of the whole multiverse (because, frankly, that would be impossible!!) – but rather, a museum of certain universes in which a specific set of pivotal events occurred after which the time-lines branched off into an ever-growing tree of different possibilities.
The Multiverse Museum
​Had world leaders heeded advice to invest in new sustainable technologies and dismantle industries responsible for the greenhouse gas pollutants back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, this would have resulted in stridently different climatic, political, institutional, technological, natural and social evolutions. With that in mind, inside the Multiverse Museum – alongside handwritten letters, political dossiers, concert tickets & other souvenirs and trinkets – are audio-visual installations of combined radio interviews, television news footage and political campaign ads.
At first glance, many of these artefacts appear familiar; some even featuring events and / or individuals we recognise from our own histories. Upon closer inspection however, in these parallel dimensions – although closely related to ours when it comes to experiencing certain events and chronologies – participants discover stridently different realities and the ripple or ricochet effects of those on what happens next.
Ethics & Interdimensional Curation
The Parallel Effect is mindful of the intimate ties that exist between museum collections and the dominating psychology of colonialism. Our collective advocates for the return of any cultural, intellectual, religious and spiritual property taken from people without their free, prior and informed consent or in violation of their laws, traditions and customs.
Using groundbreaking quantum physics, all of the artefacts on display at the Multiverse Museum are on non-timeline-disruptive-loan from their universes of origin. This means that the moment our audiences have experienced them and departed they are returned to the exact point in time and space where they live.
The objects themselves have been selected by previous interdimensional travellers to give audiences an insight into the pivotal events themselves or the permutations of what followed. Our hope is that by providing audiences with access to new vantage points & perspectives, productive engagement, knowledge building, discussion and action – over despair – will follow.
Click the white rabbit to continue...
The Parallel Effect was conceived and developed on the unceded land of the Awabakal and Worimi peoples, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and the Boon Wurrung and Woiwurrung (Wurundjeri) peoples of the Kulin Nation. We pay respect to Indigenous elders of the past, those who live among us and those who are emerging.
The Parallel Effect is generously supported by Next Wave, The Graham F. Smith Peace Foundation, Punctum, Darebin Arts Speakeasy, Origami Flight and the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.