How Are You Today – Manisha Anjali

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Resources

manishaanjali.com
neptunearchive.org
Instagram handle @neptunearchive
Instagram handle @manishaanjali

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Transcript

Kiera Brew Kurec 0:04
Hi, and welcome to Pro Prac. I’m Kiera Brew Kurec.

Nick Breedon 0:07
And I’m Nick Breedon. You’re listening to How Are You Today?, a spin off series where we call an artist and check in with how Coronavirus is affecting them, and ask them to share their worries and their hopes for the future.

Kiera Brew Kurec 0:23
Hey.

Manisha Anjali 0:23
Hey, good morning.

Nick Breedon 0:26
Hi,

Kiera Brew Kurec 0:27
Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us this morning. How are you today?

Manisha Anjali 0:33
I am very well today it’s a beautiful, misty morning here Naarm and feel like I’m about to dissolve in to a cloud, really nice.

Kiera Brew Kurec 0:46
That’s nice.

Nick Breedon 0:47
Can you share with us how the pandemic has changed things for you?

Manisha Anjali 0:51
The pandemic, I feel like I’ve just been observing a really interesting shift in consciousness. A really powerful shift into a sense of clarity that I didn’t have before because of the day to day distractions that are no longer there. So it feels like I get almost uncomfortable, sort of, way of being like hurled into a new sense of reality and a new space of imagining and channelling that I feel like can only happen in it in a time like this where the world has stopped.

Kiera Brew Kurec 1:34
During this time have you been working on any projects?

Manisha Anjali 1:37
The I guess the biggest project I’ve been working on is creating the public dream journal as part of Neptune my dream archiving project. I opened it up to the people of the world and have been publishing dreams and hallucinations experienced by everybody during this time as a way to research and unearth what it is about our shared unconscious experiences during this time. How does the subconscious render pestilence? And perhaps a shift in world order? Or what what is happening to our minds collectively?

Nick Breedon 2:25
I wanted to ask if you, have you had any kind of COVID specific dreams during this time?

Manisha Anjali 2:32
I wouldn’t say COVID specific in terms of like disease specific or virus specific. There’s definitely been elements of, elements of those themes coming up, but I haven’t my dreams have been yeah very, very different, very looking very inward and, and tapping into other other things.

Kiera Brew Kurec 2:58
I’ve definitely had a shift in my dream patterns over this time. And they’ve kind of had a very different arc to kind of how my dreams normally would. Which has been really interesting. Yeah, and it’s been really actually a great thing to, to read how like other people’s dream during this time. It feels voyeuristic, but kind of soothing at the same time.

Manisha Anjali 3:26
It is, it is really interesting hearing and reading people’s dreams, especially at this time, like even though, like we’re all strangers, it doesn’t feel strange to connect with another person’s dream because they’re communicating directly from the unconscious. And that is a language that we all understand. And almost in a language we understand better than the language of reality, which is such a learned language, that unconscious mode of storytelling is something that’s so innate and inbuilt.

Kiera Brew Kurec 4:02
It’s been really nice. I always have that situation where I wake up from a dream, and I don’t know how to articulate it. And it’s really nice to see how other people have gone through that process. Because sometimes it’s really hard to make tangible what has happened.

Manisha Anjali 4:22
Yeah, Yeah, it is interesting that we’re using language like such limited language to tell a story from a world where that language doesn’t actually exist. So it is it is a process of translation. But like it’s all we’ve got to work with at the moment and there are no rules. Kind of like dreams there are no rules in the dream world. And when it comes to writing something down, I think you can apply the same kind of logic.

Nick Breedon 4:52
Has your routine at home changed at all since the first lockdown?

Manisha Anjali 4:56
Not particularly. No there hasn’t been a huge difference between the two lockdowns, it’s definitely easier this time because you know what you’re in for?

Kiera Brew Kurec 5:07
Have you found that you created a routine for yourself during this time?

Manisha Anjali 5:12
Every every day is still different for me because I’m, I’m always juggling like 1000 different projects. And year, the my approach to each project is always different as well. So in that sense, it doesn’t, it doesn’t feel like a routine, I still feel kind of a bit scattered, but organized at the same time, like I know what I’m doing. But it’s a bit all over the place.

Nick Breedon 5:39
What does a typical day kind of look like for you?

Manisha Anjali 5:41
I like to wake up really early. And I’ll maybe do a little bit of exercise and have some tea. I’ll drink tea and coffee throughout the entire day, and then begin working on projects that need attention. First and foremost. Yeah. And then in terms of like, where I work, or how I work, it’s, it’ll, it’s just dependent. Yeah, whether I’m at my desk or working on the floor, or even in my head, or writing on windows or going outside or just like, talking to myself and a recording device. And yeah, it’s constantly changing, it’s always a very physical process. And, and those are processes I had well before the lockdown. So in terms of like, creative, like output, or, process, I don’t think that’s changed too much.

Nick Breedon 6:37
Being someone who thinks about dreaming a lot. Do you have a very kind of specific, sort of sleep routine? Or do Do you have a special kind of rituals, you know, for winding down to go to sleep?

Manisha Anjali 6:51
No, again, my sleep routine is also another scattered sort of thing that I feel like I don’t have much control over like I sometimes will spend days just not sleeping because my brain is overactive. When when I do sleep when I can sleep the whole night without waking up I’ll just wake up like Yeah! But I do, as it gets closer to the end of day, I’ll get on the herbal teas. And I think that’s like, yeah, the only kind of thing I’ll do to try help me relax. Yeah, but I do, I think sometimes I just get myself exhausted to a point where I just pass out. And that’s kind of nice as well.

Kiera Brew Kurec 7:40
I’m wondering if you could share with us if there’s anything that you’re currently worried about?

Manisha Anjali 7:45
I’m just I am worried about all the vulnerable people of the world at the moment. And, and how this pandemic has, is really screwed them over the most. I’m worried about hierarchy and existing systems that are oppressing people. And in some ways, they’re being exposed and slowly collapsing as people are uprising, but in a lot of ways, they’re still there and still there keeping people down. And that’s a constant, constant worry, the worry for humanity in general.

Nick Breedon 8:27
What are you hopeful for right now?

Manisha Anjali 8:29
I’m hopeful for change. I feel like because the world has stopped and we finally have the chance to reimagine a new reality. I’m hopeful, I’m hoping that people are able to centre love and imagination at the heart of their thinking at the moment, because change is actually possible right now in a way that it hasn’t ever been before. So I, I feel really excited and really hopeful that that we can make a beautiful, wholesome new world.

Kiera Brew Kurec 9:08
Before we wrap up, do you have a public website and Instagram that you would like to share for the listeners to be able to find your workout?

Manisha Anjali 9:16
Sure. So if anyone’s interested in the dream archiving project, Neptune, that neptunearchive.org and on Instagram, it’s also @neptunearchive. Everyone’s Welcome to submit their dreams. We’ve got submissions that are like handwritten or paintings, drawings, and just plain text as well. So any way you feel to communicate, everything is being published.

Kiera Brew Kurec 9:47
Thank you so much for taking the time this morning. And I hope you get to have some beautiful sunshine today.

Manisha Anjali 9:55
Yeah, you too. Thank you so much for having me. It’s been such a joy speaking with you both.

Kiera Brew Kurec 10:01
Thank you and hopefully we get to see you around in person one day!

Manisha Anjali 10:06
I hope too

Nick Breedon 10:10
Speak soon.

We respectfully acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we have recorded and pay respect to elders past, present and emerging and the elders of the land on which this podcast reaches you. today. We extend that respect to all First Nations people listening and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded.

Kiera Brew Kurec 10:32
How are you today has been generously supported by the city of Melbourne’s quick response grants. Follow us at @propracpodcast on Instagram or email us at propracpod@gmail.com. If you haven’t already, please subscribe on whatever you listen to podcast on,

Nick Breedon 10:48
Please stay in touch. We’d love to hear what you’re up to as well.

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