Dreamspace Fragments
Summary
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Dreamspace Fragments is an initial exploration into generating representations of the narrative content of my dreams as virtual environments, or dream spaces. Using a derivative of the classification system for dream content analyses developed by Calvin Hall I encoded the narrative content of each of 12 dreams recorded from 1989 to 2000 into numeric values which were then used to define the parameters for generating 3-dimensional objects that are rendered as VRML worlds. The title refers to these as both dream spaces and fragments as I consider each dream to be a part of the continuum of my dreaming life. Eventually, I envision constructing a virtual space for my entire dream journal record, encompassing hundreds of dreams, each dream a fragment of the whole virtual dream space.
Dreamspace fragments is an initial sketch and exploration in the area of visualizing narrative content as abstract virtual spaces. Twelve dreams recorded from 1989 to 2000 were selected "randomly" by opening up the dream journal to any page. Adaptation of the dream content analysis methodology of Calvin Hall resulted in 6 content dimensions for which I could generate an average numerical value representing the narrative content of the dream along that dimension. The dimensions include: Characters, Emotions, Activities, Settings, Objects and Descriptive elements.
| Each of the dimensions is detailed below: | |
| Character | Range - Intimacy (known to unknown): 18 values |
| Emotion | Range - Positive to negative: 63 values |
| Activity | Range - External to internal: 55 values |
| Setting | Range - In/outdoors and familiar/unfamiliar: 8 values |
| Objects | Range - Size: 26 values |
| Descriptor | Range - 13 modifier values |
A worksheet is generated for each dream using the narrative elements to calculate values for each dimension. These values are then used to create the RGB color values, the number, shape, placement, and orientation in space of the 3-dimensional elements in the vrml space.
Selected Dreams: from the dream journal.
- placing all dreams into two "worlds" one composed of time (x axis = month, y axis = day, z axis = year) and the other world composed of content ( x = character, y = emotion, z = activity),
- exploring alternative options for 3-D including the new shockwave 3-D format, and
- linking out to actual dream narrative and other artistic representations of the dream content from within each dream world.
- creating paths of "travel" and associations within each of the time and content worlds that lead you to dreams that have associated content
