Sophie Waller - FrIeNdLiEr WaYs Of BeInG

FrIeNdLiEr WaYs Of BeInG is a practice space for imagining FrIeNdLiEr interactions with our bodies, each other and the future. FrIeNdLiEr interactions, in this case, mean caring for life and situations in a way that welcomes intersectional* differences and minimises harm.

*intersectional referring to intersectionality as defined by Kimberlé Crenshaw

As a response to societal collapse under white supremacy, we try out practices of being FrIeNdLiEr. Like practicing pleasure (Pleasure Activism), practicing embodiment with our lineage and ancestry (The Embodiment Institute), working on networks of care (Disability Justice) and imagining futures or other worlds (The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions).

publication of FrIeNdLiEr WaYs Of BeInG research (2026)

snippet from short animated video PlAnEt FrIeNdLiEr (2026)

In the depths of another planet, several creatures with watchful eyes notice your presence.

To present my process at the end of the premaster in visual arts at Sint Lucas Antwerp, I developed PlAnEt FrIeNdLiEr, a dream-like playground based on the practice of FrIeNdLiEr WaYs Of BeInG. In the form of a video installation and learning space, PlAnEt FrIeNdLiEr opens time for methods of facing collapse with imagination and play.

After the final story of planet earth, whose ending brought beginnings.

These creatures live with one single vow of being FrIeNdLiEr.

Each has their own interpretation of this way of being, but a knowledge which is forged and cared for together.

In every moment. In small breaths. In deep sighs and tiny crystals.