DREAMING AS A CREATIVE FOUNDATION

Think Piece
Written By Michael Jarrold

photo from widewalls.com

In the 21st Century, the majority of the creative projects being released are generated by looking at pre-existing work and previous ideologies. I think that the process of finding original ideas by simply looking inwards is a concept that could be explored further.

New feelings can be tough to discover in everyday life, so I’ve started documenting experiences in dreams, in order to capture unfamiliar situations and use them as a way to breathe new life into any creative outlet. It’s a known fact that people have been led to scientific and technological breakthroughs by means of logging and interacting with their dreams. In art, I believe that the application of recalling your dreams could be used even more indirectly while still leaving a significant imprint on the artist's end result.

Mauricio Sierra-Siegert and his team at Colegiatura Colombiana tested the hypothesis that training people to increase the ability to recall their dreams by using a daily dream log would increase their scores on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, interesting right? 125 participants did initial measurements before being divided into two groups. The experimental group received a daily dream log, while the control group had been given a similarly phrased log registering memories of a vivid episode from the day before. After 27 days, there was a significant increase for the “creative strengths” component, which was only observed in the experimental group. Suggesting that increased awareness of dreams directly increases creativity through a “loosening” of stereotyped thinking patterns.

In the documentary “Jodorowsky’s Dune” director Alejandro Jodorowsky speaks on recruiting the musicians for his film, saying that “Pink Floyd have a record, Dark Side of the Moon. For me, that is the human being, like the moon. One side is brilliant, light. And the other side, who is black, the unconscious, what is mysterious, what is deep”. I think dreams represent that connection between the light and the dark side of the human mind. The ability to dive down into those depths and drag something out into the light is extremely interesting to me. I would love to see more artists interacting with their subconscious.

Even looking back on dreams that I wrote down years ago still allows me to instantly fall back into those distant and dark moments. By doing so, I’ve pretty much managed to keep those feelings alive, but it’s ultimately up to you to decide to what degree you want to use your dreams as a foundation for your creative expression.

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Michael Jarrold
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