A Living Dream Archive
Dream Stream is an ongoing project which started in 2007 and is still a work in progress. Individuals from all over the world are asked to send in an audio letter in which they describe their most memorable dream along with their age, location, name and motivation. Dream donors are asked to send in a version of their recollection in their mother tongue and English. Over time, this project has accumulated not only an eclectic collection of absurd and intimate stories, but also a broad collection of languages and dialects.
These audio letters became an archive which is at the root of DreamCamEra (maze installation) and has in many ways (in)directly influenced many works produced under that name.
Since this is a living archive, the content is always expanding and mutating. The dream-data serves as source material for a series of audio compositions, all entitled Dream Stream. Rather than using this archive as a string of stand-alone stories, they are cut up into specific pieces in collages – never allowing a donor’s dream to be told from start to finish, triggering the imagination of the listener to fill in the gaps.
The compositions vary in dexterity and length, but are always comprised of a myriad of stories and languages,forcing the listener to (attempt to) filter out or hone in on specific snippets depending on their language skills, interest to determine which elements they will use to make their own interpretation, and in the case it is presented as a multi-channel installation, the physical location of the listener. Whenever an audio composition is presented, be it as a multi-channel spatial work or a compact headphone installation, it is always rearranged, enhanced or transformed.