An Incredible Dream
The project called ‘An incredible dream’ is aimed at self-exploration with its own psychology in dreamland. And looking for how to express dreams as a designer. Through dreams you may get something like a more real version of yourself or life clue which even could not be explained by science, dreams like a mirror that would reflect easily what you are, how you did and etc. To me, dreams are like a door to my own world, and also like a space, in that space I can meet the people I want to meet, do what I want to do, and in dreamland I only play with the role of “me”, I talked to myself, and I faced my subconscious. Dream is a kind of “therapy” to reality. Preparing to dream(preparation), dream, and wake up(cutting as a method).This is a cycle of dreams. In the process of repeating the cycle, I understand myself as much as possible and talk to the subconscious every day. Why choose dream as topic to start a serious design? It is about my grandmother, I think she gave me a clue and say goodbye in a dream, someone may say that “ it because you miss her, because you met her in daytime”, I still think it is her own way, It is a magic from dreamland. When I was a child, I was always dreaming a same dream. I was chased by a leopard, the scene was at the corner of a staircase. It happened when I was so tired in the daytime. Because of these special experiences I decided to start a dream project.
What is dream ? dream is a Physiological Phenomenon. A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Freud proposed “that the mind has remained in constant communication with the external world even during sleep. ” Every aspect of the human body’s perception of the outside world, from the skin to the organs, whether it is a small or a huge stimulus, can trigger a dream. Dimly heard noises during sleep or changing light from the outside can make people enter a dream state. People’s feelings are very sensitive even in dreams, Many have observed the striking skill of the dream in interweaving into its structure sudden impressions from the outer world, in such a manner as to represent a gradually approaching catastrophe. WHAT is “dream” for me ? To me,dreams are like a door to my own world, Dream is a kind of therapy to the reality.When you close your eyes, throw out worries, it is dream. Dream is a mirror, reflect who you are. Dream is a room only for me.
Dream circle, which is formed from ‘preparation’, ‘dream’ and ‘cutting as a method’. I activate myself as a main body involving all daily activities, movements and actions into the circle. This is based on my life melody (sleeping at night, waking up during the day). I think others’ biological clock is different from a specific situation. When you close your eyes and relax completely, you can be in dream time, and you open your eyes and start thinking hard, completely from What you experience, what actually happened to you or things surrounding you “in day time” might be your password to unlock your dream, those all could be regard as ‘preparation’ for dream.
1.Meditation. I take meditation into my daydreams. During my meditation time, I pay attention to myself. I also feel very cured, Many moveable shapes come out in my mind during the meditation, they are changeable, dynamics. At that moment, I am not someone’s daughter, or girlfriend, or any other roles. I am only myself. Cutting as a method is a documentation for shapes, I cut them, keep them, and redesign them as a storyteller.
2.Preparation. In this stage, I think I gradually entered the cycle of daytime & nighttime, dream & reality. I start to enter lucid dreams, and I could even record the number of scene transitions in the dream according to Cast think I seem to have the ability to design dreams. One day I woke up and found that I had a lucid dream. Not only did I remember the content of the dream, I also remembered that I recorded the number of dream transitions in the dream, which proved that I was subjectively doing something in the dream. I prepare for dreams during the day, what I will do for dream, meditation, document. as everyday Claneda’s method in my dreams. After communicating with my tutor, I think I seem to have the ability to design dreams. One day I woke up and found that I had a lucid dream. Not only did I remember the content of the dream, I also remembered that I recorded the number of dream transitions in the dream, which proved that I was subjectively doing something in the dream. I prepare for dreams during the day, what i will do for dream, meditation, document. as everyday workshop. I had ever done experiment for which elements influence dream a lot, For example, some elements that help you fall asleep, such as a quiet environment, foot baths, candles that help you sleep, and so on. Based on these, I can calm down before going to bed, and I take a walk for 1 hour every day to ensure a better sleep. I also use words to record some indescribable dreams and my daily efforts before going to bed. And I design my own dreams in the dreams at night, and then I record it. However, lucid dream, this is not A state that is not a state that is easy to enter. I divided my project into daytime and nighttime. In daytime, I meditation every day to get some shapes, and then I use cutting method to save it as my raw material. In nighttime, I take my daytime experience as my preparation of dreams, In the evening I repeatedly dreamed of these beating or flowing patterns, and I even designed my dreams in my dreams. For example, I made a round shape into a flat pie, and then turned the flat pie into a small boat, often just a few small objects or fragments. The next day, I used the previous cutting piece to turn it into a story. But this is not every day. I want to say that this method is like I entered a circle, I wake up, and then go to meditation to get different patterns, and then I create according to the dream last night, and fall asleep after sufficient preparation, and then because I am during the day My experience, I got a dream, in other words, the daytime experience and dream are all my design. The me in the daytime, the me in the dreams are constantly talking. This also contacted my other research question: What way could document dreams? Are dreams related the real life? Those dreams documented still original? Are dreams plane or more dimensions? How to express it to the public? And how could people enter my dreams also? Clare Johnson said(There is only one universal language in the world, and that’s dream… … Dreams transcend all of the barriers we erect between ourselves and others. No matter our religious beliefs, cultural heritage, skin color, gender, sexual orientation, age, or mother tongue, we all dream every single night. Dreams around the globe reflect universal themes, joys, and sorrows.
3.Dream. It is untouchable, changeable, it could be some piece of memories, some feelings, or even nothing. In order to interpret what I am doing for a dream or what I am doing for this whole project, I choose to take video blogs showing my motivation, process and other details to the public letting them get closer to the project. I upload video twice a week on average, with different editing ways like emphasizing background voice, highlighting the ‘preparation’ part and meditation as a winkle point. it is much more interesting, I expect dream, I bet there would be a dream at night, I repeat the preparations I think are useful, so it is reflected details on vlog, for example, I do daily walking, daily ritual for sleeping and some voice related to sleeping and dream.I think that every little thing even in micro level would be a key to dream, you may not notice it, but it actually happened to you, just like The Butterfly effect concept has a broad term for any situation where a small change is supposed to be the cause of larger consequences. Cutting as a method appeared in the meditation process, It is a visual way to “snapshot” my feelings and thoughts, and activate my body using scissors as a hand. When I close my eyes, I still could feel some changes, light and shadow changes, then it becomes some so-called shapes, sometimes it is a fuzzy feeling, sometimes it is a concrete pattern.
I started the dream circle again and again with such a “language”, and I will become more aware of myself.
Why did I choose vlog as my vlog format? Vlog is a direct and powerful format to spread and promote dream project helping people understand ‘An Incredible Dream’ and get closer to the project, and there is a lot materials and details being collected inside including my motivation, process & every steps. Vlog also could support my future work, and it will not be closed in the future, dreamland is a huge space being explored, also is a tiny space in our brain, it is easy changed because of our age, experiences, view and so on. The exploration should not end, it could even be a project for whole life.
