The Sympoiesis of Clouds

Abstract

In this essay, I use performative writing as a framework to explore the problem of climate change. Specifically, the shifting and accumulative nature of clouds serves as a trope for imaginatively restaging environmental issues. In the essay, I view the environment as a symbolic and material construction that is coproduced in connection to the personal, discursive, and collective unconscious. Through narrative, poetry, and performance, I argue for the concept of environmental performativity as a metonym for exploring the interdependent relationship among the individual, environment, and climate change.