Dreams have always been a mystery and inspiration for many artists. The references to them could be found in every epoch of the history: presented in various forms and conventions; for example as poems, stories, pictures or films; depending on the author's aim, attitudes towards the dreams as well as technical possibilities. How dream would look like in the new media? The aim of my project is to use new media to stimulate the dreamlike environment, revealing its original character as close as possible.

 

First of all, in order to understand the specific character of dreams, my project requires expert research and knowledge. One of the most influential figures in dream theories is Sigmund Freud. His main concern refers to the model of conscious and unconscious mind, where dreams are described as the “royal road” to understand the unconsciousness (Freud, 1999). According to him, dreams encode personal, unknown desires, fears and emotions. Freud distinguished between manifest and latent content of dreams; where the former refers to what is actually dreamt, and the latter signifies the unfulfilled wish that the dream represents. The latent content is transformed into the manifest content by “dream work”, which occurs in four ways. Firstly, by condensation: combining latent thoughts into an image or situation. Secondly, by displacement: directing actual feelings from one subject to another. Thirdly, by symbolism: converting complex concepts into a similar sounding or looking images. Finally, by secondary revision: reorganizing the dream into patterns in sync with the experience of everyday life. Freud concluded that dreams are complex, and require analysis to interpret their meaning. He used the technique of free associations to interpret dreams: looking at the thoughts and emotions generated by a dream, rather than its symbolical content.

 

Nonetheless, in contrast to Freud, contemporary studies shown that one can be conscious of his or her dream and can influence them; for example in so called lucid dreams. Further studies intend to find the way to increase this control and to allow the dreamers to lead their own dreams (1990; Kihlstorm).

 

Freudian dream and unconscious mind theories were the basic inspiration for Surrealist artists (Bradley; 1997). They, usually at group meetings, attempted to mirror their dream imagination; free of conscious control of reason and convention. In their work, they used various invented by them games such as automatic drawing, spreading ink on a paper or chain games (Gooding; 1995). Their work appeared in various forms: in literature, paintings, sculptures and cinema. The effects were full of surprising elements, unexpected juxtapositions, which expressed metaphors instead of symbolism. Interestingly, although, following the Freudian theory, they considered their work as completely unconscious and automatic, Freud argued it was fully conscious, since they had a general imagination while doing their works (Bradley; 1997)

 

Inspired by both Freud and Surrealists, I conducted my own research on actual dreams. Having been keeping a dream journal and asking people for their dreams, I have got unique insight how the dream environment looks like and what elements the dream involves. First of all, I realized the dreams are personal and their interpretation depends on strictly one’s experiences. The elements in dreams refer to obsessions, fears, desires, self-esteem, self-confidence, sense guilty; memories or the events just occurred; usually they refer to everyday. Their value and awareness vary: sometimes the dream reveals serious and worrying things; sometimes it can be a less important, unaware. Secondly, I concentrated on the visual representation of the dream. I noticed that most of dreams are chaotic: unexpected change of places, people around and emotions. Most people cannot see themselves in their dreams, they observe, but sometimes they can briefly see their faces. Often the dreamer is in “lower” position, for instance sits, lays or crawls, fails over or is not able to move. Some images in the dreams are very strong, especially face expressions; but, in contrast, some images are blurry, invisible or unstable. Colours are quite strong; usually monocolour or one colour dominates. Dreams are commonly silent, conversations sound to be disjoined or the dreamer can hear simple, repeating music. Overall, most dreams seem to be absurd; however, after their psychological interpretation they make more sense.

 

Secondly, I looked at the conventions in which dreams are presented in modern media.

The greatest inspiration I found in the dreamlike world created by David Lynch; for example in ‘Inland Empire’ (2006), ‘Mulholland Drive’ (2001), ‘Lost Highways’ (1997) or ‘Alphabet’ (1968). His films are made up of several disjoined vignettes, which could work, possibly, in any order; the narrative seem to be non linear. The story involves disruption of time, place and identity. Nonetheless, the repetition of particular elements; for example characteristic objects, places or conventions; keeps the unity of the narrative. To achieve the dreamlike effects, Lynch used certain techniques and conventions; for example close shots, smooth and slow camera movement, unusual angles, and dark, colourful lights and shadows. Furthermore, the sound is calm; speech sounds like whispering and the conversation seem to be non-sense and disjoined, especially in the Rabbit series. All elements built mysterious and dreamlike scenario (Sheen et al.; 2004).

 

Another example of impressive dreamlike world was created by collaboration of two surrealist artists: film maker Bunuel and painter Dali. ‘An Andalusian Dog’s’ (1928) narrative, based on dream logic and Freudian free association concept, presents disjoined chronologically and frequently changing events. The elements in the film are surprising, absurd and illogically connected. However, some particular elements repeat; the transition is smooth, transparent and seems to join them together. Film is full of metaphors; the artists denied any symbolical meaning in the film (Sitney, 1974). They intended to make irrational and completely out of consciousness dream like environment, deriving their ideas from their own dreams and excluding all of the conventional or rational elements.

 

Further examples of dreamlike elements I found in films by Jan Svankmajer and Wojciech Has. They revealed dreams by disruption of place and time as well as irrational events, such as living objects, which in film seem to not surprise any of characters. Similarly, Hans Richter gave life to objects in his film using stop motion animation. Another artist, Maya Derren; who was the inspiration for most modern artists working on dreams; presented dreams in circular narrative, repeating events and objects changing into another.

 

Taking everything into account, there are various elements which create the dream-like environment in the film, and they are applied on all stages of the production. They involved elements integrated into the script; unconventional camera angles, lights and shadows or the style of places and characters; or lights, colours and reshaped lenses applied while editing.

 

The last question in my research is how new media can be used to reveal the dreamlike environment. First of all, new media offer non-linear, hypertextual navigation. Particular elements can be linked to others and allow different, unique ways of reading the story (Lister; et al; 2003; Rieser; 1997).  If the most of dreamlike narratives is made up of various, disjoined elements; such as those presented by Lynch; which apparently could be presented in any order, they can be embodied into the hyper media. Consequently, the user will be allowed to choose the element to view and the unique narrative. Therefore they will have more control over the story and the experience will be more personal.

 

Secondly, the space in new media is more immersive and simulative. The point in case are computer games, where the background changes its perspective simultaneously with characters; and where the user takes the main character the gaze; for example like in Doom (Manovich; 2001). Although similar first person perspective appeared in some films such as “Being John Malkovich” or “Strange Days”, new media, besides, invite the user to influence the narrative, so the sense of immerse is deeper. On the other hand, the story requires their full attention and control, and it stops when the user is inactive. Therefore, the concept of first person narrative and the possibility to affect the narrative can be applied to reveal dreams; nevertheless, it should be limited since the dreamer is not able to control their dreams completely.

 

Finally, digital techniques offer new possibilities in aesthetics forms and presentation. For example, the style of interface, which is the first stage of the user-content relation, can determine a meaning and transfer the viewer into the mediated world. Likewise, digital film editing differs to the traditional work on video. The camera work in digital production provides only the rough footage, and the whole art process occurs on the editing stage, by applying various digital effects such as adjusting levels and colours, image reshaping or animating (Manovich; 2001).

 

The produced pilot suggests how the new media can present the dreamlike environment. I attempted to use unconventional camera work, play with light and shadows and various digital effects to build the dreamlike atmosphere. Furthermore, having been applied it into the example interface and built into hyper links, the footage achieved completely different effect then when it was watched on the regular screen in the linear narrative. The pilot shows that new media provide different possibilities. Suggested by me way can reveal the dreamlike character. Nonetheless, my technical skills and aesthetics should be further worked on and improved (Compesi; 1997).

 

Taking everything into account, the approaches to dreams are various. They depend on the aspect of work, its aim as well as tools and technical possibilities. As the result, the can be interpreted and presented in different forms, style and convey different meaning. Those approaches cannot be judged, because each of them suggest the special way of interpreting and imagining this very complex and abstract concept: the dream. Therefore, my project, using the techniques and conventions of new media, will build a different dream.