Dreamsprawler

2014

Awarded as a Finalist in Google.com`s DevArt Competition, in collaboration with Jordi Puig.

Exhibited at Ignite: Women Fueling Science and Technology.

Dreamsprawler aims to map people's dreams on a brain. It could also be rephrased as the "global map of people's dreams". Users of the application will be able to tell their dreams using text, images, voices, or videos. All of these data will be uploaded to Google+ under #Dreamsprawler hashtag. Our application uses these data to allow users to revisit other people's dreams.

The viewers navigate a brain, where all dreams will be placed. Searching for keywords will display dream locations in the brain space. Dreamsprawler displays people`s dream in a seamingly coherent dream story. In the future, the mapping between dream contexts and brain neural responses can be done by using the Gallant Lab`s data correlations.

Concept Overview

If our brain is a living semantic environment, how will it perform when its being fed by shared dream compositions? What do our dreams have in common? What is the coherent dream world story ? How will it sound like? What kind of feeling will it elicit?

One of the motivation of Dreamsprawler is to create an awareness of the technological singularity. Advances in brain computing is fast approaching than we think it is. We are just waiting for the technology to mature. In science for instance, there are already existing efforts to decode the mind by tapping into the brain while we are conscious or even unconscious. There is also this recent discovery of the real wiring structure of neurons in the brain which has a structured form compared to the previous belief that it isn`t. Science and technology is pushing the boundaries fast, leaving ordinary people like us wondering of its potential implications. We have to be able to experience and relate the story of how technology and science interact.

Whenever we are dreaming, we are actually undergoing a process of "repair". We are repairing not just our body but also preparing our minds for the next day or even our future. Our brain is sharing to us through dreams what needs to be learned or skills we need to acquire. We experience nightmares because our mind needs to learn and cope up with the daily pressure and dangers in life. Dreams are essential to our well-being. Dreams can also give us a hint of the areas in life that we need to improve. By sharing fragments of our dream story to Dreamsprawler we`ll be able to discover our relationship with the unconcious part of us and the world we are living in.