The Forecast is a performance-installation wherein water is a co-creator. Fragments of text circulate in a custom wishing well, and instrumental whispers mingle with the shards of light reflected by the water’s surface.

The text is sourced from weather reports in old editions of The West Australian—published exactly one hundred years ago to the date of the premiere of this new work. Combined with the visual metaphor of a wishing well, these archival texts encourage us to think about humanity’s historical entanglement with natural systems, and the methods we use—magical or scientific—to reconcile with these greater forces.

At the core of The Forecast is the balance of human (text) and non-human (generative, watery) notation. Performers respond to both with semi-structured improvisation.

Ultimately, this work is about how environmental prediction becomes compulsion in the face of the climate crisis, and about the futility of our human-scale instruments against unruly natural systems. As the proverb goes: be careful what you wish for.