art installation proposal for Waking Life ‘26

The Soft Archive is a small, ethereal hideaway for collective emotional resonance by the lake — a cozy nest overlooking the water where participants are invited to pause, reflect, and process in between the music. The space acts as both a floating diary and light installation: a calm, luminous capsule where core emotions can surface, settle, and be gently held.

Each day, the installation is anchored by a guiding question and an evolving color palette that shapes the lighting projections, scent, and interior mood of the space. Together, these elements build a soft narrative arc through a range of feelings and memories — hope, freedom, melancholy, anger, romantic love — as the festival unfolds.

01

where our installation will live

We envision The Soft Archive to be built inside a pre-existing elevated wooden structure along the lake, giving it a tree-house feeling, inspired by the design of the early Cochilo Stage in 2018. This would allow the light elements to shimmer across the water at night. Ideally, it would sit near a pathway traveled by festival participants moving between stages, workshops, and performances. The structure will be enclosed with off-white canvas tarps, with dewy layers of organza draped over the branches as a roof, and collected recycled tree branches suspended above, ready to hold the handwritten notes of participants. If an elevated lakeside structure is unavailable, we are happy to reimagine the installation in an alternate space. Concept sketches for potential alternatives can be found in the footnote “Alternate Homes*.”

02

seating

The interior of The Soft Archive is designed as an intimate, minimal living room for 4–6 people, centered around low, loungey seating. We will have a single low tea table for writing and gathering, where the cassette recorder and communal journal will be. We will have soft lighting and a scent concept inside the space, reflecting the daily prompt. All furniture and textiles will be sourced secondhand from local Portuguese vendors and artists, grounding the space in reuse and lived history. A statement blanket or rug anchors the room, layered with throws and pillows creating a soft, meditative atmosphere shaped by texture and warmth.

01

where our installation will live

We envision The Soft Archive to be built inside a pre-existing elevated wooden structure along the lake, giving it a tree-house feeling, inspired by the design of the early Cochilo Stage in 2018. This would allow the light elements to shimmer across the water at night. Ideally, it would sit near a pathway traveled by festival participants moving between stages, workshops, and performances. The structure will be enclosed with off-white canvas tarps, with dewy layers of organza draped over the branches as a roof, and collected recycled tree branches suspended above, ready to hold the handwritten notes of participants. If an elevated lakeside structure is unavailable, we are happy to reimagine the installation in an alternate space. Concept sketches for potential alternatives can be found in the footnote “Alternate Homes*.”

02

seating

The interior of The Soft Archive is designed as an intimate, minimal living room for 4–6 people, centered around low, loungey seating. We will have a single low tea table for writing and gathering, where the cassette recorder and communal journal will be. We will have soft lighting and a scent concept inside the space, reflecting the daily prompt. All furniture and textiles will be sourced secondhand from local Portuguese vendors and artists, grounding the space in reuse and lived history. A statement blanket or rug anchors the room, layered with throws and pillows creating a soft, meditative atmosphere shaped by texture and warmth.

By night, a laser projection produces a monochrome wash of light that radiates across the lake in shimmery, opaque sheets and softly illuminates nearby branches and pathways. Each night, the color theme and the movement pattern of the laser will be chosen and programmed by our team to reflect the guiding question for that day.

a few lighting references

Eugenia Puglisi (lead)

lion

Eugenia is a DIY-rave curator, DJ, and physician-in-training, currently studying holistic medicine in New York City. She grew up living between California and northern Italy, and since 2017 has curated underground music experiences in San Francisco, Boston, and NYC.

For the last two years, she has creatively directed and produced RECESS in Brooklyn, a queer-centered, psy-forward DIY day rave featuring deep, ethereal, and earthy music – drawing from her formative experiences at the early editions of Waking Life. She is a practicing poet and the host of The Shape of Memory, an experimental mix series inviting artists to transmute core memories into a musical narrative, unbound by genre.

Her dream is to create immersive, healing spaces which bring together sustainable, trauma-informed medicine, music, light, and intentional human connection.

Tommy Kwok

penguin

Tommy is a San Francisco based creative director, curator, DJ, installation artist, and electrical engineer.

He is the founder of Club Moniker - a dance music event series and label centered on spacious and experimental sounds. His productions include DIY outdoor rave renegades, club festivals, experimental visuals, and gallery installations.

His central thematic focus is on elevated and cinematic psychedelia through multi-sensory interplay.

Julia Um

eagle

Julia is a mixed-media artist based in San Francisco whose practice spans printmaking, sculpture, and new media.

She has collaborated on experiential environments ranging from retail activations to Club Moniker events and outdoor renegades.

Through optical effects, layered imagery, and text, her practice investigates visibility and obscuration—examining themes of memory, perception, and identity across both visual and cognitive dimensions.

A graduate of California College of the Arts, her work has been supported by fellowship funding, featured in gallery exhibitions, and extended through educational workshops at national institutions including the Smithsonian.

01

Laser

02

Laptop

~100W AC, DMX-controlled + wired

~90W, DMX-control hub

03

Diffused Lanterns

04

Generator

Rechargeable battery powered

~2500 Wh, gasoline, refuel daily

~100W AC, DMX-controlled + wired

01

Laser

03

Diffused Lanterns

Rechargeable battery powered

The Soft Archive is designed as a temporary, low-impact installation within an existing festival structure that can be fully dismantled by our team without leaving a trace or the land.

While the final form of the installation will evolve on site, its construction will follow consistent principles of lightness, modularity, and care. Built from lightweight, modular materials—natural textiles and fabric, paper or vellum-like surfaces, reclaimed or untreated wood, cord or rope, and select secondhand furniture—the installation is assembled without permanent fixings, adhesives, or ground alteration. All elements remain freestanding and reversible.

Breakdown happens gently and in stages: power and lighting are removed first, followed by the folding and packing of textiles and paper, the clearing of secondhand furniture for reuse, and the hand-disassembly of structural components. All materials are carried out for reuse or responsible disposal.

A final walk-through of the area will ensure that no materials, marks, or disturbances remain, and that the land is returned to the state in which it was found.

Should our project be accepted, we plan to independently secure funding through a combination of art grants (which we have experience successfully applying for) and support from our DIY communities, who are deeply familiar with and invested in our work.

We plan to draw on our resources as organizers and event producers to source secondhand technical equipment and materials, enabling us to build the installation resourcefully while keeping costs low.

*

If an elevated, lakeside structure is not available to us, we are open to reimagining the installation in another setting— for example, a dock or platform reaching over the water, or a quiet alcove or tent on level ground, where visitors can still feel a gentle connection to the lake or surrounding woods (See concept sketches below.)

We are also happy to discuss possibilities with the Waking Life team, as we imagine there may be inspiring spaces onsite that we haven’t yet considered. :)

on a dock over the water

in an alcove on level ground, connected to nature