We interpret the dream, and the dream interprets the real
Using Dreamybot AI, a web-based AI-powered dream analysis software, a set of texts were generated from prompts asking the bot to analyze my dreams. Fragments of my dream recollections are coupled with the interpretations and programmed onto seven LED signs, each representing a version of me during that week. The resulting text creates a generative long-form poem that is displayed, a few words at a time, endlessly scrolling across a series of seven painted silk canvases. The fragmenting and obfuscating of the full programmed text creates space for the viewer to project additional meaning by mentally connecting the random bits of phrases that are scrolling past through the process of free association. The paintings can be described as "cloud like gestural abstractions" that invite the sensation of apophenia, or the human tendency to see meaningful patterns or connections in random or unrelated data. Steeped in Jacques Lacan's post-structuralist theory, these paintings and illuminated text together express ideas on the collective experience and digital representation.
photo credit: Jerry Atnip