Our so called reality contains lots of dream stuff. Movies, stories, abstractions… even science. Some dreams are “mere entertainment”. Some are useful (science, abstract description).
And there are links between sensation and dream. Look at a cat and your brain automatically, with no conscious effort on your part, refers to to the term “cat” and a bundle of associated thoughts.
So the line between dream and reality is fuzzier then people think.
Most cultural institutions exist in imaginary space but have incredible power over people. The state, god, heirarchy, status, identity. I definitely think the unreal is way more present in our lives than people normally accept.
the meaning, the dream-manifestation, is more important to them than the actual experience.
I’m going to be thinking over that for a while.
Back home I used to go to the annual exhibition of the top high school art students. The explanations were often long-winded, pretentious, not always super coherent. Fair enough I was too in high school. But there was one I loved. It was a very industrial looking metal sculpture of fish skeleton made of rusty engine parts, all teeth and gears. Maybe 3’x3’. The explanation was: “A fish. A big fish. A big scary fish with a motor!”
Our so called reality contains lots of dream stuff. Movies, stories, abstractions… even science. Some dreams are “mere entertainment”. Some are useful (science, abstract description).
And there are links between sensation and dream. Look at a cat and your brain automatically, with no conscious effort on your part, refers to to the term “cat” and a bundle of associated thoughts.
So the line between dream and reality is fuzzier then people think.
Most cultural institutions exist in imaginary space but have incredible power over people. The state, god, heirarchy, status, identity. I definitely think the unreal is way more present in our lives than people normally accept.
I’m in art.
Almost invariably, you show them a piece, they ask “what is it?”, “what does it mean?”.
(Sometimes they even want an explanatory essay pinned to the wall next to the frame)
Because the meaning, the dream-manifestation, is more important to them than the actual experience.
For most of us, dreams are realer than reality.
I’m going to be thinking over that for a while.
Back home I used to go to the annual exhibition of the top high school art students. The explanations were often long-winded, pretentious, not always super coherent. Fair enough I was too in high school. But there was one I loved. It was a very industrial looking metal sculpture of fish skeleton made of rusty engine parts, all teeth and gears. Maybe 3’x3’. The explanation was: “A fish. A big fish. A big scary fish with a motor!”