fever dreams
Fever Dreams is a collection of short experimental videos shot entirely using a thermal camera. The works follow a female protagonist through a series of restless, overheated moments—tossing in bed, reaching into freezers, seeking relief. The grainy, color-shifting thermal footage captures both the body’s literal temperature and a less visible inner state: insomnia, spiraling thoughts, and the emotional weight of rising heat.
The collection includes two related pieces: one is an interactive video in which viewers can disturb the sleeping figure by plucking at the mesh of a digital “sheet”. The other immerses viewers in the fevered dream of the sleeper. Both videos are accompanied by a sparse, uneasy soundtrack of off-key string plucks and hi-hat percussion.
“Low-resolution images can evoke affect more directly, bypassing visual clarity in favor of bodily resonance.”
The Skin of the Film, Laura U. Marks, 2000
The idea for Fever Dreams began during a stretch of sleepless nights in a London heatwave, when I was experiencing hot flashes for the first time. After experimenting with thermal imaging, I chose to embrace the limitations of the medium—its low resolution and ghostly palette. What emerged was a visual language rooted in the silent era — stylized, exaggerated, and emotionally charged. The project blends personal experiences of aging and anxiety with broader questions about collective climate unease and embodied perception.
In an era when thermal imaging is used to surveil, diagnose, and detect, Fever Dreams asks what else this technology can reveal. Can it make heat’s force visible not only as a metric, but as a feeling?
Fever Dreams - External
Materials: single-channel thermal video
Dimensions: 1920 x 1080
Duration: 3:00 minutes
Fever Dreams - Internal
Materials: single-channel interactive web video
Dimensions: web browser
Duration: variable
