Presented below are those works within The Dream Museum which consist of audio / visual mediums, as well as new media. Like all works within this collection, they speak to the nature of dreams and / or nightmares, specifically within a contemporary context.

To find the still medium works which have been included in this collection, click HERE.

R_U_O_K?
[Shaughn Martel / 08.22.2023]

The video is set in a place between places. Liminal and empty, but containing traces of the recognizable and references the “never ending hallway” seen in television and film. As the camera moves towards the arch the video skips, pushing the viewer back to a previous point. The video ends just as the viewer reaches the threshold symbolizing a resolution that cannot be created, or a future unseen. As this video is meant to loop endlessly. It can be seen as a dream that is recurring without resolution and a manifestation of warning or dread.

MAN AND MACHINE
[Brian Mitchell / 08.22.2023]

This activated sculptural work speaks to the contemporary state of increased connectivity, and the ways in which this impacts both the individual and collective imagination. As the threshold between internal and external stimulus, emotion and image-making becomes more plastic, how can we say with certainty where the core of our thoughts and dreams truly lay?

LUCID
[Shanhuan Manton / 08.21.2023]

While capitalism has long been chewing away at our collective ability to dream, in the early 2010s I noticed the beginning of a trend that attempted to commodify dreaming, to turn it into yet another frontier for extraction. At the time, research using brain MRIs of sleeping test subjects paired with algorithmic image interpretation software was beginning to be able to reproduce the images one saw in their dreams. It struck me that it was not long before those who seek to extract the last bits of value from every facet of life in their endless pursuit of wealth would soon be seeking to extract our dreams and attempt to convert them into wealth as well.

I made this film in response, as a subtle commentary and protest against capitalism's gestures towards extracting from the dream space. Framed as a story about a test subject in a study that replicates objects from dreams, Lin, who's attempting to use the technology to replicate an ex-lover in the hopes of rekindling a lost romance, the film utilizes a logic and grammar of dreams to critique the suppression of grief that capitalism relies upon to oppress laborers.

PINK PETALS
[Aliyah A. / 08.18.2023]

An allegory of a creative creature's obsession and the desire to belong, Pink Petals is a mixed-media film piece consisting of video footage, sculptures and hand drawn animations pieced together with an original audio narrative. The story follows a tortured artist's dream and their negotiation between the creative process and time itself in an attempt to be known.

GENERATION STEAM
[Bile Sister and Leslie Predy / 08.15.2023]

In the audio component Reich (Bile Sister) asks us to consider: while recognizing it is a privilege to be able to access work and live, do we ask ourselves often enough if we’re happy and thriving? If you’re a person who’s been stuck in the grind, do you question why you must conform to societal structural norms that don’t support you, simply because they were embedded long ago? With the rising cost of living, can this work even sustain you? Why must we sell our souls, is there another way to live?

In the video by Predy, we see a response in the narrative of a future generation where advanced artificial intelligence takes over, embodied by a Furby called Brenda. Based on her training model, she excels at HR but is soon taken over in the surreal throws of anxiety that capitalism has manifested. Haunted by the dream of what could have been, Brenda has an epiphany and returns to the ways of old, the ways of the witch, the ways of steam.