Concept
Everyone dreams. Some dream more than the others, some dreams are forgotten and some dreams are remembered and subconsciously stay in our mind when we wake up. We may dream multiple times in a night depending on the number of sleeping cycles we have, and the length varies like episodes in a sitcom or soap opera! Some dreams might have completed when our eyes open but in most situations, the dreams are incomplete when we force ourselves to be awake or disrupted by abrupt noises like alarm clock. For years, Psychoanalysts have been talking about the juxtaposition and relationship between dreams and real life occurrences in a person's life and Sigmund Feud, had developed a topographical model of mind, describing the mind's structure and function. In this model, the conscious mind is labelled as tips of the iceberg whilst the unconscious part is actually a person's inner thoughts and primitive wishes kept at bay and mediated by pre-conscious area. He emphasised the importance of unconscious mind and the primary assumption of Feud's theory is the unconscious minds are governed by a person's true behaviour to a greater degree than suspected. Dreams are the visualisation of our unconscious minds and therefore the interpretation of dreams surfaces. Every object and element that occurs in our dreams are categorised by our emotions and inner thoughts with negative and positive sides. Every aspect of it are constructed for various interpretations, for example dreaming of snakes. It is said that the dreamers are experiencing a challenging situation in their lives but on the positive side, it also means healing and transformation in their lives too. Then the analysis goes to the type and how it appears in the dream . If it's a Python or a snake, there's a sexual orientation differences between them, and if the dreamers step on them, kill them or see them from a distance - the interpretation varies accordingly. . Taking the mind definition and exposition aside, dreamers are their own storytellers. The visual images of our dreams are partial fiction and partial true. The characters exist in the dreamer's life and they mainly consists of loved ones and close acquaintances but the space is highly fictional. The events and activities are the main evidence and content of an unconscious mind and to a certain degree, they are elevated, exaggerated to an unbelievable astonishment when the dreamers wake up. Some dreams are short and some dreams take the full cycle of sleep or maybe more depending on the length of sleep at a period of time. Most dreams are vastly forgotten when dreamers wake up but some remember bits and bobs of the details. Some have recurring dreams for a lengthy period of time - they are too vivid to be erased from memories and are mainly unpleasant dreams or nightmares. But there are also dreams who work like a special episode in our lives that is one-off and stay in our mind after years. These dreams which stay longer than expected, do not normally have an ending or with a “cliffhanger” before the dreamers are forced to be awake. As a creator of our own dreams, the curiosity to wanting to find out what happens next, doesn't stop in the awakening state however we can't go back and continue directing the next scene or continue 'viewing' as an audience although we are highly featured as the main protagonist in these dreams! But what if there's another way for continuation? We can't go back to the sleeping mode but we can create a complete version in real life - continuing from where they end in our dreams and change the script to the way we can control from unconsciousness (dreaming) to subconsciousness (memory) and then to our conscious mind (reality). In “Neverending Dreams”, we explore the cross-over disciplines in our dreams as illustrated above, how we continue the interpretation In our subconscious minds based on the occurrences in our unconscious state and translate them into visual explorations that communicate with the audience. We connect the dots and find relevance to complete a 'never ending' dream, creating an end or outcome that governed by the same characters, objects and elements in our dreams. The translation in visual may conform to a changeable degree of a setting due to the exhibited space but the substance remains intact. The hypothesis not only challenges our frame of mind but also creates an open framework - at present, the frame of mind is autonomous / independent however this changes when it opens to the audience as a starting point for further investigation. It poses more questions to be answered - is this the only outcome? Why have you decided on this outcome? What would have you done differently? What works and doesn't work in the process? The dreamers' background also plays a proportional role in determining the visual in relation to their cultural upbringing and environment including architectural space, colours, visual style, manners, occupation and language. Bearing these forethoughts, is there any discrepancy or discrimination associated to these dreams from an audience’s perspective? What does the audience think - they have the capabilities to make changes too? It creates endless possibilities for further exploration.
Content
Waiming Wee and Weiyun Chang, media artists from Taiwan develop their dream encounters and explorations with different kinds of sleep furniture as the main metaphor to illustrate the hypothesis. Each will develop 2 dream sets to be showcased at various spaces across London that cater to different walks of life.
How it works: The dream is written as a backdrop for the installation, the installation is the continuation of where it ends in the dream - from the dreamer’s perspective to complete and begin the hypothesis.
Interactive Dreams from Weiyun:
Title: Under the Bed
Type: Shadow Play
Equipment: Torch light
Materials: Recycled-bed, Wood, Fabric, Grass
This installation will use Shadow Play to present the continuous dream, which encourages the audience to see the dream in a different aspect. There are paper-cutting sculptures hidden under the bed. With the torchlight, the shadow of the paper-cutting under the bed will be projected to the ground and visualise the story from dreams.
Everyone dreams. Some dream more than the others, some dreams are forgotten and some dreams are remembered and subconsciously stay in our mind when we wake up. We may dream multiple times in a night depending on the number of sleeping cycles we have, and the length varies like episodes in a sitcom or soap opera! Some dreams might have completed when our eyes open but in most situations, the dreams are incomplete when we force ourselves to be awake or disrupted by abrupt noises like alarm clock. For years, Psychoanalysts have been talking about the juxtaposition and relationship between dreams and real life occurrences in a person's life and Sigmund Feud, had developed a topographical model of mind, describing the mind's structure and function. In this model, the conscious mind is labelled as tips of the iceberg whilst the unconscious part is actually a person's inner thoughts and primitive wishes kept at bay and mediated by pre-conscious area. He emphasised the importance of unconscious mind and the primary assumption of Feud's theory is the unconscious minds are governed by a person's true behaviour to a greater degree than suspected. Dreams are the visualisation of our unconscious minds and therefore the interpretation of dreams surfaces. Every object and element that occurs in our dreams are categorised by our emotions and inner thoughts with negative and positive sides. Every aspect of it are constructed for various interpretations, for example dreaming of snakes. It is said that the dreamers are experiencing a challenging situation in their lives but on the positive side, it also means healing and transformation in their lives too. Then the analysis goes to the type and how it appears in the dream . If it's a Python or a snake, there's a sexual orientation differences between them, and if the dreamers step on them, kill them or see them from a distance - the interpretation varies accordingly. . Taking the mind definition and exposition aside, dreamers are their own storytellers. The visual images of our dreams are partial fiction and partial true. The characters exist in the dreamer's life and they mainly consists of loved ones and close acquaintances but the space is highly fictional. The events and activities are the main evidence and content of an unconscious mind and to a certain degree, they are elevated, exaggerated to an unbelievable astonishment when the dreamers wake up. Some dreams are short and some dreams take the full cycle of sleep or maybe more depending on the length of sleep at a period of time. Most dreams are vastly forgotten when dreamers wake up but some remember bits and bobs of the details. Some have recurring dreams for a lengthy period of time - they are too vivid to be erased from memories and are mainly unpleasant dreams or nightmares. But there are also dreams who work like a special episode in our lives that is one-off and stay in our mind after years. These dreams which stay longer than expected, do not normally have an ending or with a “cliffhanger” before the dreamers are forced to be awake. As a creator of our own dreams, the curiosity to wanting to find out what happens next, doesn't stop in the awakening state however we can't go back and continue directing the next scene or continue 'viewing' as an audience although we are highly featured as the main protagonist in these dreams! But what if there's another way for continuation? We can't go back to the sleeping mode but we can create a complete version in real life - continuing from where they end in our dreams and change the script to the way we can control from unconsciousness (dreaming) to subconsciousness (memory) and then to our conscious mind (reality). In “Neverending Dreams”, we explore the cross-over disciplines in our dreams as illustrated above, how we continue the interpretation In our subconscious minds based on the occurrences in our unconscious state and translate them into visual explorations that communicate with the audience. We connect the dots and find relevance to complete a 'never ending' dream, creating an end or outcome that governed by the same characters, objects and elements in our dreams. The translation in visual may conform to a changeable degree of a setting due to the exhibited space but the substance remains intact. The hypothesis not only challenges our frame of mind but also creates an open framework - at present, the frame of mind is autonomous / independent however this changes when it opens to the audience as a starting point for further investigation. It poses more questions to be answered - is this the only outcome? Why have you decided on this outcome? What would have you done differently? What works and doesn't work in the process? The dreamers' background also plays a proportional role in determining the visual in relation to their cultural upbringing and environment including architectural space, colours, visual style, manners, occupation and language. Bearing these forethoughts, is there any discrepancy or discrimination associated to these dreams from an audience’s perspective? What does the audience think - they have the capabilities to make changes too? It creates endless possibilities for further exploration.
Content
Waiming Wee and Weiyun Chang, media artists from Taiwan develop their dream encounters and explorations with different kinds of sleep furniture as the main metaphor to illustrate the hypothesis. Each will develop 2 dream sets to be showcased at various spaces across London that cater to different walks of life.
How it works: The dream is written as a backdrop for the installation, the installation is the continuation of where it ends in the dream - from the dreamer’s perspective to complete and begin the hypothesis.
Interactive Dreams from Weiyun:
Title: Under the Bed
Type: Shadow Play
Equipment: Torch light
Materials: Recycled-bed, Wood, Fabric, Grass
This installation will use Shadow Play to present the continuous dream, which encourages the audience to see the dream in a different aspect. There are paper-cutting sculptures hidden under the bed. With the torchlight, the shadow of the paper-cutting under the bed will be projected to the ground and visualise the story from dreams.
Title: Wandering
Type: Shadow Play / Reflections
Equipment: Ceiling spotlight
Materials: Wood, Fabric, Embroidery, Thread
This is a double-sided shadow box (theatre), which will bring people to walk into a wandering dream. There are two parts in this installation, the first part is the “Watch” part, where the audience in the front side can see the reflections from the box. The second part is “Shadow Play”, in which the audience is encouraged to walk into the box, and join the performance/story of the dream. In the box, there will be four layers of hanging embroidery on fabrics. The audience inside the box can see the embroidery stories, while the audience outside the box will see the reflections of the embroidery, threads and the other audience inside.
Type: Shadow Play / Reflections
Equipment: Ceiling spotlight
Materials: Wood, Fabric, Embroidery, Thread
This is a double-sided shadow box (theatre), which will bring people to walk into a wandering dream. There are two parts in this installation, the first part is the “Watch” part, where the audience in the front side can see the reflections from the box. The second part is “Shadow Play”, in which the audience is encouraged to walk into the box, and join the performance/story of the dream. In the box, there will be four layers of hanging embroidery on fabrics. The audience inside the box can see the embroidery stories, while the audience outside the box will see the reflections of the embroidery, threads and the other audience inside.
Title: The Noisy Dream
Type: Audio Installation
Equipment: Light Activate Digi Recorder, Circuit board, Electricity, Wiring,Speaker, Floor lamp
Materials: Mattress
There are various dreams in our life, the audio dream is one of the possibility. What will it be if we can hear the dream? This installation will bring the audience to experience another sense of “listening” to a dream. With the Light Activate Digi Recorders hidden on the mattress, 10 or more pieces of sounds and voices of the dream can be recorded. The recorders will be triggered to play when being covered by the shadows of pedestrians.
Type: Audio Installation
Equipment: Light Activate Digi Recorder, Circuit board, Electricity, Wiring,Speaker, Floor lamp
Materials: Mattress
There are various dreams in our life, the audio dream is one of the possibility. What will it be if we can hear the dream? This installation will bring the audience to experience another sense of “listening” to a dream. With the Light Activate Digi Recorders hidden on the mattress, 10 or more pieces of sounds and voices of the dream can be recorded. The recorders will be triggered to play when being covered by the shadows of pedestrians.
Interactive Dreams from Waiming Wee:
Type: book wall
Materials: wood, wiring and papers to create the book, hanging hooks.
Paper size: A4
Bed type: bunk bed
Create a hanging book wall that can be hung on a wall or any flat surface - just like hanging an artwork on the wall. The audience is encouraged to flip the pages just like flipping book pages. There isn’t any book cover but the first page will be a written page of the dream followed by visual storytelling just like a bedtime story reading from a parent to a child. When the audience may also decides to flatten all pages and it becomes a piece of artwork. The book is light-weight, supported by wood piece and hanging hooks to be hung on a bunk bed.
Type: book wall
Materials: wood, wiring and papers to create the book, hanging hooks.
Paper size: A4
Bed type: bunk bed
Create a hanging book wall that can be hung on a wall or any flat surface - just like hanging an artwork on the wall. The audience is encouraged to flip the pages just like flipping book pages. There isn’t any book cover but the first page will be a written page of the dream followed by visual storytelling just like a bedtime story reading from a parent to a child. When the audience may also decides to flatten all pages and it becomes a piece of artwork. The book is light-weight, supported by wood piece and hanging hooks to be hung on a bunk bed.
Above: Book wall and its shape - when flipping the pages like a book and when sliding all to become one piece (2-way reading)
Type: projection mapping
Equipment: 1 x projector, sensors, electricity, wiring
Materials: footprint stickers
Bed type: tatami mat only (Japanese-style bed type)
The written dream is shown on projection and the audience follows the footprints on the floor. The footprints are numbered in sequence and every step that they take, the screen shows the visuals that corresponds to the numbers to create the finishing dream. There will be more than a dream and the audience doesn’t know which dream that they will be watching until they follow the footprints. The style is similar to playing a kinect dance game. the sensors and wiring are hidden under the tatami mat for health and safety purposes. No sound as the visuals represents the deaf people’s dreams. some might be recorded as sign-language.
Equipment: 1 x projector, sensors, electricity, wiring
Materials: footprint stickers
Bed type: tatami mat only (Japanese-style bed type)
The written dream is shown on projection and the audience follows the footprints on the floor. The footprints are numbered in sequence and every step that they take, the screen shows the visuals that corresponds to the numbers to create the finishing dream. There will be more than a dream and the audience doesn’t know which dream that they will be watching until they follow the footprints. The style is similar to playing a kinect dance game. the sensors and wiring are hidden under the tatami mat for health and safety purposes. No sound as the visuals represents the deaf people’s dreams. some might be recorded as sign-language.
Above: Projection and footprints - each footprint will be numbered in colour codes to illustrate different dreams (2-3 dreams)
Type: sound box
Equipment: iPod touch or iPod nano, a pair of headphone set, iPod touch or iPod nano charger, a torch light, sleep mask
Materials: any material to build a squarish black box (2m x 2m x 2m), mail pocket (tote bag is fine)
Paper: A4
Bed type: sofa bed
The written dreams are printed on A4 papers and each paper has a number. the audience will be asked to enter the dark room using a torch light and be seated on sofa bed. Once seated, the audience will be asked the number that s/he has, wear the eye mask and turn off the torch light. Then the music plays according to the number that they’ve picked - it replaces the visuals as to experience the blind people’s dreams.
Equipment: iPod touch or iPod nano, a pair of headphone set, iPod touch or iPod nano charger, a torch light, sleep mask
Materials: any material to build a squarish black box (2m x 2m x 2m), mail pocket (tote bag is fine)
Paper: A4
Bed type: sofa bed
The written dreams are printed on A4 papers and each paper has a number. the audience will be asked to enter the dark room using a torch light and be seated on sofa bed. Once seated, the audience will be asked the number that s/he has, wear the eye mask and turn off the torch light. Then the music plays according to the number that they’ve picked - it replaces the visuals as to experience the blind people’s dreams.
Above: sound box with its sofa bed - the box should be black, it could be made of fabrics too
Type: thread maze
Materials: wood, wiring and threads to create the maze, any prop that corresponds to the dream(s)
Bed type: mattress only The maze can be in any size but ideally it is about 2m high x 3m length.
The written dream is at the entrance and the audience is encouraged to explore the dream within the maze. As the exploration goes, there will be props lying around the maze that corresponds with the finishing dream but there are moments, some are disconnected like leaving an open-ending to the audience for their deeper thoughts. Mattresses are placed where props are where the audience is encouraged to play with these props!
Materials: wood, wiring and threads to create the maze, any prop that corresponds to the dream(s)
Bed type: mattress only The maze can be in any size but ideally it is about 2m high x 3m length.
The written dream is at the entrance and the audience is encouraged to explore the dream within the maze. As the exploration goes, there will be props lying around the maze that corresponds with the finishing dream but there are moments, some are disconnected like leaving an open-ending to the audience for their deeper thoughts. Mattresses are placed where props are where the audience is encouraged to play with these props!
Above: thread maze and its shape (top view) with indications where props shall be placed
