Daylighting the Stream is an immersive, hypnagogic exploration of the subconscious mind, buoyed by scientific and documentary material. We draw parallels between bodies of water and our bodies made-of-water, and the interplay between the conscious, subconscious and dreaming minds. Participants will believe they are dreaming.

Daylighting the Stream draws inspiration from the subterranean rivers of New York and Pittsburgh. “Daylighting” describes an infrastructure project that re-exposes natural waterways that had been covered for urban development. Following successful daylightings of Seoul’s Cheonggyecheon and the Sawmill River in downtown Yonkers, NY, a daylighting of the Panther Hollow waterway in Pittsburgh is underway.

Our project is a 2-city work, developed and showcased on Governor’s Island in NYC and site-specifically in Pittsburgh. We are in residency on Governor’s Island with the WorksOnWater/UnderwaterNY incubator space for diverse investigations of water in the urban environment.

The immersive encounters are intensely personal, and give participants layers of agency that encourage them to confront their roles in the past, present and future of human interactions with water and waterways. Urban development has buried the constant movement of water under our feet, but these streams from the past still exist, waiting to be rediscovered. Daylighting these streams exposes humanity’s past interactions with water, and provides a map to our future relationship with this most important natural resource.