Introduction：

Calvin Hall, an American psychologist, proposed the Continuity Hypothesis, which suggests that dreams are a collage of fragments from our different waking life memories. The interactive installation Remnant explores this intriguing concept, focusing on the philosophical aspects of memory remnants and their links to daily experiences. It creatively represents these ideas through an intricate arrangement of up-down moving fragments triggered by the detection of human movement. The fragments represent the memory shard inside our dreams. Thus, Remnant aims to provide audiences with an abstract resonance of their memory shards, offering them a remedy and platform to reflect on their past dreams, and encouraging them to contemplate the connections with their real-life experiences.

 

Interactivity:

Remnant’s interactivity lies in the rotation speed of the winch system that controls the ups and downs of the fragments, and the speed intensity is controlled by the detection of human movement by the Fresnel lens. In Remnant’s concept, the fragment array of a combination of big, mid, and small fragments represents the various memory debris inside a human dream, when an audience comes under the array, it mimics the action of entering into one’s dream. The default movement of the installation (fragments going up and down slowly) mimics the brain choosing contents that appear in our dreams from our memory pool. The more significant movement of fragments when the Fresnel lens detects human movement corresponds to a more intensive dreaming activity, aiming to guide the audience in linking these big and small memory pieces with their daily experiences.

 

Why am I making Remnant?

Precedent installation works about dreams are either very personal, depicting the artist's inner world, or highly conceptual, serving more as representations without a specific narrative. In Remnant, I strive to represent how my dream works in a manner that's still very personal, however,  adding logical references (sleeping cycle as the moving pattern) and deeper meaning (philosophical theories)to my work by incorporating elements of Freud and Hall's theories. For better interpretation, the simplest aesthetics and motions are ideal in order to match the abstractness. Yet I am not choosing to be representational - there will be no specific images present in my project, because I would like to leave some space for my audience to think themselves, instead of being too direct by outputting information for them. Unlike other artists’ works that offer a fascinating dream world, I hope my installation, slow but calming, gives audiences a chance to reflect on their dreams and find resonance with their waking lives. 

​

Purpose & Impact:

My dreams profoundly resonate with me, influencing my waking life as they cause me to ponder their content. They also fuel my inspiration, particularly in my art and design projects, where they provide a rich source of fantasy. I hope that my installation, to some extent, will prompt audiences to reflect on their dreams and resonate with their dreams. Hopefully, Remnant could generate a lasting impact that the audience would use such ideation to connect their dream and waking life after viewing the installation. My audience could be anyone:  for active dreamers like me, I envision they can feel what I feel; for the general public, I wish Remnant could offer them minimally a peaceful meditation while they are in the installation experience. The artistic manifesto is always a backup plan if my audience cannot get the idea at all barely looking into the installation.

​

For More...

For the entire making process, please visit processing blog site

For more pictures, please check the slidebox below