About the Compass
From lived experience to human possibility.
Justin McDermott
I am a writer, artist, speaker and peer worker based in Victoria, Australia.
Much of my work grows from my own experiences of voices, visions, psychosis, spirituality, psychiatric hospitalisation, recovery, creativity and the process of rebuilding an ordinary life.
I write from lived experience, but also from the perspective that comes with time, reflection, peer work and ongoing learning. The Dream State Compass is where these different parts of my life and work come together.
Where it began
Dream State began in 2014, when I was living in Lyonville, Victoria. A small room served as both an art studio and a study: a place to paint, write, reflect and make sense of experience.
I wanted a language that could hold fear, confusion and loss of control alongside creativity, spirituality, symbolism and heightened meaning. Dream State allowed room for curiosity while recognising that these states could become overwhelming and, at times, dangerous.
Read the full origins of Dream State
What it is becoming
The project now reaches across five connected manuscripts, alongside reflective writing, art, verse and music. The memoir stays close to the life. The other works ask what that life opens into: how meaning comes to govern, what makes choice possible, how help uses power, and what people make possible for one another.
These are different ways of exploring the same territory. Each needs its own form, question and standard of evidence.
The question that stays
How do we rediscover the beauty of ordinary life without losing our capacity for wonder?
The Compass holds that question with curiosity, honesty and humility. What was suffered need not be called good. What was learned need not be wasted.
I hope this work helps people make sense of experience and find more room for what comes next.