THE BUBBLE POPS is a participatory project that sees adaptive experiences – like immigrating or surviving a hurricane – as vital to our living cultural knowledge as we face changes due to sea level rise and the climate crisis.

Popsicles are traded for advice. At a mobile cart, the Strauss asks people passing by for advice about how to adapt. In exchange, they receive a snow globe cast popsicle. As it melts, revealed on the stick is advice from a previous participant. Their responses go into subsequent iterations of exchanges.

Collected advice is shared in exhibitions where responses hung together create a fragmented beach horizon. These actions frame adaptive experiences as assets and link people as allies. Participation emphasizes self-reliance and interdependence as it highlights capacity of self and the collective.