Sigmund Freud’s research into the understanding of the subconscious mind had a great influence on Surrealists during the 20th-century. Surrealists who used Freud’s work as a creative tool branched off into Dream Art. Dream art refers to art work which is directly inspired by the irregular events that occur in ones’ dreams. But what is it about how we experience dreams that make them so inspiring?
When we go to sleep we are resting our bodies and our consciences, but our brain is still very active in the form of dreams. Dreams are a combination of verbal, visual and emotional stimuli that often come together as a broken, seemingly illogical but often entertaining series of events. Many scientists believe that dreaming is our brains way of sorting through problems, events, and experiences from our waking lives that we may or may not be aware of. Dreams occur most frequently during Rapid Eye Movement sleep or R.E.M. Sleep which is the deepest stage of sleeping. There are several physiological changes that occur during R.E.M. Sleep. Heart rate and breathing quickens, blood pressure rises, and our brain activity rises above normal waking levels (alpha waves).
Without our conscience to regulate our memories, emotional stimuli and stored sensory information, this increase in brain activity could explain why dreams seem to be nonsensical and illogical. How our sub-conscience interprets the illogical experiences that occur while we dream is the inspiration that artists use when creating Dream Art. A few famous examples of Dream Art are Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Kublan Khan (literature), and Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Mirror (film).
For More Information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_art
http://publicliterature.org/books/dream_psychology/xaa.php
http://health.howstuffworks.com/dream.htm
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