Dreaming is the Mind Left to Itself

In »Dreaming is the mind left to itself« I deal with similarities between different states of consciousness – the waking reality, the digital realm, the dream world, drug induced conditions, spiritual meditations – and our feeling of individual presence in them. Each of them having their purpose and allowing humans to access different constructions of reality. Especially the role of dreaming has fascinated artists and researchers for a long time. The neuroscientific theory “The Overfitted Brain Hypothesis” (OBH) compares dreaming to a certain aspect of Artificial Intelligence (AI). For AI to deliver meaningful results it needs to be fed with a sufficiently variable dataset. To increase variations, it can be interspersed with noise and glitches. OBH draws parallels to the purpose of dreaming and argues that it works as a similar noise injection, so our brain can cope with the many self-repeating patterns during waking world. The AR video installation “Dreaming is the mind left to itself” leads the visitor through abstract dreamscapes and digital environments, focused through a vignette reminiscent of Virtual Reality glasses. The imagery gets more and more moshed, suggesting the dissolution of parallel realities.

Statement by the artist.

2022, digital animation with sound and

Augmented Reality application,

05:23 min

Download AR app from Apple Store for free: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dreaming-mind-ar/id1638927257

Download AR app from Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.DagmarSchurrer.Dreaming_ARapplication&hl=de&gl=US&pli=1