Grey's Laura Jordan Bambach on the flora, festivals and lucid fantasies that rock her world

Berowra Valley National Park and beyond

I grew up backing onto a huge national park that stretches more-or-less up from North west Sydney towards Newcastle and further west to the Blue Mountains, including Wollemi, where the world's oldest tree species can be found. The birdsong and cicadas, the scent of eucalyptus and petrichor and the vast wild valleys, cliffs, caves and creeks. When I need to clear my head and ground myself I find inspiration and peace meditating on this place. I imagine leaning against a big gum tree, next to a babbling creek, at the bottom of a lush valley, and fill my soul. Sometimes there’s a platypus there in my dreams.

Ars Electronica

In my opinion, the queen of all creative festivals. Ars has a rich history of highlighting the intersection of technology, science and art. Based in Linz every year, there’s nothing to do with our industry there, it’s the real deal in terms of serious art and scientific achievement. The winners of the Golden Nicas are always thought provoking, and the exhibition itself is peppered all across the city, including showings from many of the more interesting creative universities. It has a strong environmental bent too, and a young person’s competition that always highlights brilliance from 16-19 year olds. If you do one thing, get to Ars in September.

My dream diary

I’ve kept a dream diary since I was 11, on and off. Because of this I have incredibly vivid dreams and a dream geography that I have mapped out. I take a lot of meaning from my dreams – they often give me the start of an answer to a creative problem and sometimes even deliver it to me completely in a tangential way. I spend time each morning reflecting on my dreams for a hint into where I might need to focus my attention or remove underlying stress. I am quite a lucid dreamer, so love the adventure. I met Gary Lachman before COVID, and his research into dreams and precognition is fascinating stuff. I’ve certainly had some interesting experiences. Going back into my dream diary is always an interesting place to start for an idea too – taking something from there and colliding it with a more rational waking creative thought often gets to somewhere unexpectedly interesting. Now I’m using AI to visualise them, too.