In the mid-19th century, Dr. Pawel Norway experimented with illustrating the dream content of his subjects using physiological data. The Dr. Pawel Norway Dream Machine is a reconstruction of these experiments adapted for both contemporary technologies as well as the gallery setting. It consists of both an interactive installation – the Dream Machine – and a participatory performance, the Dream Analysis Demonstration. The Dr. Pawel Norway Dream Machine is a critique of the Quantified Self movement – a movement born out of the ability and desire to quantify various aspects of life, from steps taken and calories burned, to other physiological data like body temperature, galvanic skin response, and the electrical activity of the brain – the biometric data used in the Dream Machine.
