Imaginary Life is an informal network of creative thinkers and doers founded in 1996. For a PDF overview of selected work please write to info at imaginarylife dot net. Except where otherwise noted, all work and content on this website is protected and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
STARLING Starling is a 5 minute audio-video collage projected on 5 screens, created for the MIIT house tiny video festival in Osaka, Japan, 2023. More info to follow…
In Post Production ‘CASSETTE LETTERS – How we used to love each other’, is a set of 12 films shot on mobile phones in 12 different locations. The artist TAN KIM was confined to her home due to chronic health … Continue reading
Made entirely from found photos and videos from the nineties and set to the music of Osaka based composer Masahiro Kanagawa, the short film presents the epic of Gilgamesh story in 17 minutes. In the 1990s the Kinrandonsu theatre group … Continue reading
DRESSING GOWN is a 10 minute video consisting entirely of an appropriation of the black and white film Woman In A Dressing Gown that was made in 1957. The original film is considered an example of British social realism, and … Continue reading
Inner elder is a short video based on a mindfulness meditation practice. The video is a collection of photos of hospital and doctor’s clinic waiting rooms. A voiceover is an imagined Inner Elder giving advice to their younger self. The … Continue reading
Faxes was an ongoing project playing with communications technology, and started in the early nineties as a sister project to stickers. Anonymous faxes were sent to corporations anonymously every Friday afternoon to encourage people to stop working. The fax numbers … Continue reading
_STICKERS is a project started in the latter half of the 1990’s long before broadband internet and the instant interaction and connection that enabled. It was very simple. A series of questions were printed on stickers, and the stickers were … Continue reading
VIDEO LETTERS is a long film edited from Video 8 footage shot in nineties Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, New York, Toronto, London, Hanoi, Seoul, Lagos and Beijing, and stored in a box for 29 years. The tapes were transferred and edited … Continue reading
THE BUILDING AMPLIFIES is a project by artist Pavel Matveyev with the voice of Tan Kim that was presented as a multimedia installation in the Glitter Ball showroom, with other examples of Pavel’s work on Saturday, the 19th March, 2022. … Continue reading
VALLS HAVE SOUNDWALK is a proposal for a public art piece by the artist Pavel Matveyev. A preliminary ‘sketch’ was presented at the ‘Hej Gävle’ group exhibition at Gävle konstcentrum in 2012 where an audience listened through headphones to a pre-recorded … Continue reading
FOOD CODE Is set of images taken over time from a colour coded excel sheet. Food code creates a pattern on an excel sheet that uses a traffic light system for noting what food is tolerated and ‘safe’ and which … Continue reading
BED DATA asks: What is Bed time? What is Sick time? When does Sick time become ‘Crip Time’? How do you measure ‘Crip time’? What does it feel like? How to communicate the experience of chronic conditions, chronic fatigue and … Continue reading
IMAGINARY FLOWERS goes out to everyone with invisible illnesses, disabilities, and chronic conditions who simply aren’t going to “get well soon”. These flowers are meant to comfort and console. Breathing in, I am a flower. Breathing out, I am fresh! … Continue reading
HOLDING SPACE, WHEN YOU KNOW HOW TO SUFFER YOU SUFFER LESS, BED THERAPY APHORISMS is a zine of aphorisms or short statements expressing a general truth or advice on how to conduct yourself. These aphorisms were taken from notes jotted … Continue reading
NORDIC BY NATURE E-BOOK. We are delighted to announce that the e-book Nordic by Nature, New voices on deep ecology; Arne Naess in the 21st century, is in the process of being translated and released as separate PDF chapters with … Continue reading
HOLDING SPACE, WHEN YOU KNOW HOW TO SUFFER YOU SUFFER LESS is a short ten minute film about grief and chronic illness and how both processes are also accompanied by moments of gratitude and grace. “Holding space” means being physically, … Continue reading
HOLDING SPACE means being physically, mentally, and emotionally present for someone to support them as they process their experiences and feelings, often in times of grief. The term has expanded in meaning over time to encompass other situations and it is … Continue reading
NORDIC BY NATURE, NEW VOICES ON DEEP ECOLOGY TODAY, ARNE NAESS IN THE 21ST CENTURY is a free e-book of podcast transcripts. The activists interviewed in the podcast were not chosen because of their ability to follow their inner voice, … Continue reading
NATURE-CENTRED MINDFULNESS is a great way to start meditation practice for a beginner, and also a beautiful practice for more experienced mindfulness and meditation practitioners. This text extract below is taken from the upcoming book, Nordic by nature. New voices … Continue reading
NORDIC BY NATURE was launched as a research and editing partner for environmental experts publishing globally relevant content on ecology today. Part of this work resulted in 26 audio recorded interviews and 11 podcast episodes, spotlighting activists from across the … Continue reading
AJAY RASTOGI and the Foundation for the Contemplation of Nature has an extensive international network for ongoing research, courses, workshops and panel appearances on nature-centred mindfulness as a tool for education and maintaining ‘Inner Resilience’. (Listen to episode 3 of … Continue reading