Curating dream experiences: studio-based journey for mental well-being

In the universal sense, as nonexistent, invisible, and subconscious things, dreams have a deep connection with our reality and the self and provide great help to self-study. Everybody dreams and every dream means something, no matter how fragmentary and ridiculous it may appear (Coriat, 1915). They are the products of combinations of our experience, physical activities, mental activities and subconsciousness that we experience during the day, which are fermented in the brain during sleep. My research is a cross-disciplinary journey that takes a philosophical stance of combining arts and design, to interrogate how dreams and subconsciousness help people get close to their psychological world and serve as critical contributors to creatively knowing the self. The major research approach in my work, that of curation, extends beyond the museum field. The curatorial concept works as a mechanism for dealing with information, “sifting, sorting, hiding, and standing out” (Davis, 2016). It is used in this project for doing design works addressing dream therapy, exhibiting aesthetic works, and collecting the audience’s opinion. Curation, the activity serves for people’s mind elicits dialogue and connection between human and multiple artifacts, escapes the constraints of space and time, and conveys deeper emotions or thoughts to the audience. What’s more, curation delivers a social function. Because exhibitions, as a common outcome of curation, are needed by society and are also a good tool for spreading information. On any random day, how much of what we say, feel, and do is controlled by the unconscious mind? Based on the psychological fact that our unconscious mind plays a crucial role in shaping behaviour, defining character, managing thoughts and ultimately, determining how we live in life each waking moment, and the intimate connection between dreams and unconscious, this work explores methods for creating an environment of mental well-being for people to pay attention to their psychological world in creative ways – getting to know our dreams.