Howard

The Dream:

We were indoors exploring these shifting environments, my friend/lover Sarah Michelle Gellar and I.  As we explored the environments would change; from the familiar, my current apartment, to the foreign or strange; a hotel, then a flophouse, and finally another apartment, though that one resembled the assisted living communities I worked in.  Although the environments shifted there was continuity; everything was dimly lit, dingy, and there were red & black pentagrams and blood all over the floors and the walls, everywhere.  Naked and covered in blood, Sarah Michelle Gellar was also a witch and she remained close to me as we explored, it was very intimate.  For a while, we were exploring these rooms and compartments alone, but then people started appearing.  They didn’t enter the rooms through doors or anything like that, they more just manifested in space.  It didn’t feel strange though, it felt natural the way they just appeared.  After appearing, people would start using heroin and having sex.  Sarah Michelle Gellar didn’t want to use heroin, but in the end she did and afterwards it was fine.  There was no real narrative, just a shifting of environments and emotions; lust, longing, horror; and anxiety over the drug use.  I remember waking up puzzled and amused.

 Interpretation:

Lust and longing are driving forces in this dream.  Blood is symbolic of the soul and passion.  Specifically the eroticism of blood symbolizes passion for living.  Pentagrams are associated with the power of thought, creation, imagination, the unconscious, and untapped potential. The color red that appears in both the blood and the pentagrams is related to energy and lust.   The naked female form (Ms. Gellar) relates to sexuality as well as individuality and a longing for connectedness and nurturance.  With Sarah Michelle Gellar cast as a witch, she may be offering advice.  Drug use is associated with escapism and relinquishment of personal will, however, it is also a message to be more awake, more clear, and more focused.  Is there something that Sarah Michelle Gellar could be trying to tell you to be more awake, clear, and focused about in order to increase your feeling of connection?  Perhaps changing focus, ways of thinking, or employing some creativity will help you utilize untapped potential.

(a-1)

Launch

"Sometimes I Dream in Technicolor" is finally ready to launch.  I spent last weekend in the print studio creating the posters to distribute to participants and I will begin collecting "data" (dreams) this week sometime.  Please feel free to participate, offer feedback, etc.  Let's get this off the ground!

These are the posters--letterpress printed with wood type and polymer plate

"sometimes i dream in technicolor"

a multi-phase art project in which I am collaborating with the community at large (that's you!)

Phases I and II of this project will be executed concurrently.  In Phase I, I assume the persona of a Research Assistant and will go out into the community (coffee shops and student centers to start) to interview people about their most recently remembered or most vivid dreams.  I will be recognizably dressed in a white labcoat, with a laptop and voice recorder for data collection.  During this phase I will collect data such as: the collaborator's first name, age, approximate date of the dream, the dream itself (in as much detail as possible), the most prevalent emotions in the dream, what major symbols or imagery are present, how s/he felt upon waking, what s/he thinks it means, and anything else remembered that could be construed as significant. 

At the end of the interview process the collaborator will receive a card with links to further information on the project, as well as a letterpress printed broadside--a token of thanks for participation in the project.

Phase II begins as soon as the first dream has been collected.  Phase II finds me in the role of the Dream Analyst.  I will be interpreting the dreams I am collecting based on the main symbols, imagery, and emotions in each dream.  The interpretations will be added to this blog along with the original dreams.  They will also be incorporated into a zine (or series of zines) that will be mailed to the contributors and placed in alternative book spaces around the city.

Phases I and II will lead up to Phase III, in which I take on the character of the Artist.  Each dream will be illustrated and scanned.  This will allow me to produce prints of individual dreams, as well as piece all of the illustrations together to create a very large accordion book printed on a large-scale printer.  This book will fold out several feet and will weave the dreams into a "Collective Dreamscape" or rather, a rich landscape of intertwined images.  This "Dreamscape" will be gridded off in such a fashion that a collaborator can pinpoint where his/her dream imagery manifests in the landscape.  When installed, the zines will be made available to help decode the "Collective Dreamscape" and the audio interviews will be looped to create a multi-sensory collaborative experience.

This blog will be updated with dreams and interpretations.

To contribute dreams to this project, you may email the aforementioned information to technicolor.dreams@gretabach.com.