CAMP NEW CIRCADIA
To go on the road for the purpose of recreation, escape, leisure or self-discovery has been a central feature of the American experience. Today, in this time of highly-mediated 24/7 consciousness and ongoing political fragility, we see potential in mining the paradoxes at play when we venture into the landscape to pursue states of idle mobility. In this spirit, Camp New Circadia (CampNC), created a traveling architectural ensemble dedicated to collective idling, with the aim of engaging and mobilizing a diverse set of communities, within an array of distinct geographies.
Taking cues from nineteenth-century camp revivalist meetings and popular roadshows, CampNC offered a performance and convocation space for instigating, gathering, and circulating a collection of cross-cultural stories and events focused on rest, sleep, and dream-based practices. Pillow Culture joined CampNC’s team, comprised of architect /urbanists, artists, a scholar and practitioner of collective dream-sharing, and architecture students from the University of Toronto in setting up CampNC at the Haliburton Forest Wildlife Preserve, Canada. Drawing on the previous mounting of a fixed, indoor New Circadia, the collaboration designed CampNC’s “soft tools” as well as a lightweight system of shelters to maximize portability and mobility.
CREDITS