“6-Step Program” is a meditation both about and born of pandemic induced isolation, uncertainty, and channeling restless energy.

Created in the first weeks of social distancing in March 2020, this multimedia work emerged from reflections on the ways social and physical connecting that previously taken for granted had become objects of fantasy and longing.

Taken from the original liner notes for the piece:

"I’ve been really curious about what kinds of fantasies of physical togetherness and touch people are having right now. I’ve also been thinking a lot about people in addiction/recovery communities for whom orders to isolate bring up particular challenges to the refuge they take in community.

This track is built off of raw drum audio phone-recorded on a whim as I was blowing off some steam at the drum kit the other day. The grooves mused me into a couple late nights down an electronic rabbit hole. They drew out these layers and textures colored by the surreality and sense of uncertainty that has been unfolding, as well as the digital outpourings of pain, tenderness, and care between people navigating this crisis.

Dance/movement has been a grounding practice for me for a few years. Sometimes that grounding comes through exorcising energies that need to be channeled and released. (Having just tapered off of antidepressants as this crisis was ramping up, that energetic release has been particularly important for me as of late). I wanted to build visually and kinesthetically on this track, I wanted to capture that bodily release, I wanted to explore those themes of isolation, fantasy, and longing mentioned above. I also wanted to experiment with light/color and embrace what was an emergent process. 

For me, moments like these bring up questions about what makes experiencing a work of art useful/supportive for people (which is different for everyone, at different times). Something that vibrates on a frequency that counterbalances what they are experiencing, bringing calm to chaos? Something that mirrors back the energy they are experiencing in ways that validate, give a sense of being known and seen? Something to zone out/in to, something that grooves too hard not to dance to? It’s my hope that this piece lands in there somewhere for folks."