"The Oceanic Feeling"
was recorded on my bed on January 2, 2020. The cat meows are actual cat meows. Lyrics adapted from letters exchanged between Sigmund Freud and Romain Rolland circa 1923-1936.

Coined in 1927 by French writer and mystic Romain Rolland in a letter to Sigmund Freud, the oceanic feeling refers to "a sensation of 'eternity,' a feeling of something limitless, unbounded, [...] of an indissoluble bond, of being one with the external world as a whole."


This poetics laboratory is thusly concerned with ego dissolution, ecstatic joy, mystical experiences, and the possibility of connection during mass extinction. Our bodies, remark French anarchist collective Le Love Gang, "are never isolated, are always enmeshed in shifting patterns of relations. Scattered across space, our selves form patterns, trace connections ethical but unseen."


Throughout this course, we will animate our writing via oceanic affects, conduct magical experiments, and commune in kinship. An abecedarian list of topics we may explore: blue humanities, critical ocean studies, eco-art, global climate change, Indigenous epistemologies, meditation, monasteries, multispecies others, pain, and silence.

“Human life—indeed all life—is poetry. It's we who live it, unconsciously, day by day, like scenes in a play, yet in its inviolable wholeness it lives us, it composes us. This is something far different from the old cliche 'Turn your life into a work of art'; we are works of art—but we are not the artist.”

— Lou Andreas-Salomé,
from Looking Back: Memoirs

WHAT is the oceanic?

about
the
oceanic

“Human life—indeed all life—is poetry. It's we who live it, unconsciously, day by day, like scenes in a play, yet in its inviolable wholeness it lives us, it composes us. This is something far different from the old cliche 'Turn your life into a work of art'; we are works of art—but we are not the artist.”

— Lou Andreas-Salomé,
from Looking Back: Memoirs

WHO is the oceanic?

Claire is an adjunct associate professor at Pratt Institute with a B.A. (summa cum laude) in English Writing from University of Pittsburgh and an M.F.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University. She's a writer thinking about animals, architecture, climate change, love, the ocean, pedagogy, psychoanalysis, suffering, and synaesthesia.

Erin

Molly is a graduating Fine Arts senior at Pratt Institute focusing in painting, also working with mixed media and textiles. Originally from New Jersey, her art and writing practices often focus on subjects such as climate change, molecular interconnectedness, and the superfund site in her hometown.

Samara
Huggins

Cat is a 20-year-old Libra from Chicago. When she isn't attempting to write, she likes digital art, baking (banana bread), and watching too much Love Island. Her dream is to write for a fashion magazine (or maybe Buzzfeed LOL).

Catalina
Delapena

Abby Romine

Abby is a 21-year-old writer from LA. She's a double aries who loves ceramics, the victorian era, and allergy season. Her dream job is doing it all, but as of now she hopes to be an editor for a fashion/"lifestyle" publication.
(quotations are satirical)

Samara is a homebody from Georgia who studies fashion design. She knits and learns languages when she's not watching absurd YouTube documentaries. Samara hopes to teach creative writing or interdisciplinary design after launching a slow-fashion brand with her roommate.

Erin is a poet from Panamá City, Panamá. She loves spending way too much money on fancy cocktails and being on her phone for longer than she should. She hopes to stop doing that one day and get some writing done instead.

Erin
Perez

Amber pretends to be a writer, and is stuck between the states of Georgia and New Jersey.When she isn't crying over her college assignments, she is getting a coffee from Dunkin Donuts, or is busy being embarrassed by her existence.

Amber Freda

Shannon
Lee

Molly
Wasielewski

Lisa

Lisa
Corn

Lisa is a writer from New Jersey. They enjoy history and photography. After graduating from Pratt Institute this year, they plan to write for the stage and screen.

Professor
Claire
Donato

Shannon is a communications design junior at Pratt institute. She enjoys sculpting, painting, wandering around, and vegging out in her free time. She lives in California, and grew up in Portland, OR. One day she hopes to scour the earth in search of a mushroom + fruit foraging/bird-watching community in a far away place.