Salish Sea Dreaming is an exploration of how an ecosystem might be felt as a living field rather than observed as an object.
Bringing together illustration, marine photography, underwater film, sound, and real-time systems, the work unfolds as a dynamic environment where relations—not subjects—are primary. Herring, salmon, birds, and whales do not appear as separate entities, but as movements within an interdependent continuum. This iteration of the installation is created in collaboration with Squamish artist Austin Aan’yas Harry.
The installation does not seek to explain the Salish Sea. It listens. Visual and sonic elements emerge, dissolve, and reconfigure—mirroring ecological processes of flow, exchange, and transformation. What becomes perceptible is not only the ecosystem itself, but the subtle reciprocity between observer and observed.
In this space, the work invites a shift: from witnessing nature to recognizing oneself as already within its dreaming.
Pravin Pillay is the Lead Artist of Salish Sea Dreaming and Creative Director of MOVE37XR, a non-profit immersive media studio and research lab. His work moves at the intersection of art, technology, ecology, and consciousness, creating experiences that cultivate empathy and relational awareness between humans and the more-than-human world.
Rooted in systems thinking and contemplative practice, his approach brings together artists, scientists, and knowledge holders to explore how immersive media can act not as representation, but as a field of relationship.
Having lived in relationship with Salt Spring Island for almost two decades, his work in this piece emerges through long-term engagement with place, collaboration, and listening.
Pravin Pillay — creative direction, system orchestration
Austin Aan’yas Harry — artist, designer
MetaCreation Lab (SFU) · Indigenomics Institute ~ Global Centre of Indigenomics · MOVE37XR · Dreams Unlimited