Where do we go in our dreams?
Concept:
My net art project attempts to explore major dream themes and what they may be psychologically interpreted as. This project attempts to visualize what a specific dream theme may look like whilst the individual is actively dreaming. The user will be immersed in a ‘sleep experience’ where they will have the opportunity to explore a dream that was posted on the internet. as dreams are volatile to change, this project doesn’t aim to encapsulate the meaning of dreams universally but instead attempts to draw similarities amongst a small portion of dreams that are reported to the internet.
Inspiration:
My inspiration for this project came mainly from http://indirect.flights/. I really enjoyed the aesthetic of this internet art project and thought it was really interesting for the user to explore and to make sense of something that was seemingly nonsensical. I kept thinking about other things that didn’t make sense to humans. It then led me to think about dreams, and how dreams don’t actually make sense to humans most of the time, but we try to derive meanings from our dreams and to contextualize them into the events that are occurring in our everyday lives.
My inspiration for the interactivity of our project came from http://jazz.computer/. I personally really enjoyed how I got a different interaction depending on the direction that I strolled in, and I definitely wanted to allow my users to interact with my project based on the direction that they scrolled in.
UI & UX
The user will firstly be immersed in an experience that will imitate the conditions that put people to sleep. The user will engage in the first popup window which will allow the user to pick a song that will play throughout the user experience. Then after selecting the song, the user will be prompted to pick a bedtime activity, they will either:
- Scroll through social media
- Choose to watch a short Netflix video (probably will be a 30-second excerpt of The Office’
- To read a boring book (will be a 1000 word typeface about something very boring).
Once the user selects an option, they will experience the selected before bedtime activity and at the end of the activity, users will click a button that says ‘turn the lights off’. The background colour will change from white to black, indicating that the lights have been turned off, and the user will begin to ‘fall asleep’.
The next scene will explore major dream themes:
- Falling – Explored by scrolling downwards
- Being chased – Explored by scrolling to the right
- Flying – Explored by scrolling upwards
- Meeting someone from our past – Explored by scrolling to the left
The user will be led to a screen with a stick person attached to their mouse they are able to scroll in one particular direction to explore a major dream theme. The elements that the user sees whilst they are scrolling will be almost nonsensical like that of http://indirect.flights/. Whilst they will make sense together as a story, it will be purposely almost messy, and a little bit random because often times in dreams, we stand and wonder where we are, or why a particular thing is where it is. Random bubbles of text, and thoughts will also guide the user through the dream theme. The background elements will change as the user continues to scroll through the theme.
At the end of the theme, the user will be presented with a popup box that will interpret how ‘falling dreams’ for example, are interpreted by psychologists. This will be based on actual research. After the user completes a particular theme, they are given the option to go back to the beginning to explore a different theme or to end their experience.