in
your dreams
MANIFESTO
is a guide and visual exploration to help make our unconscious thoughts physical, to further explore & question our relationship with our dreams, what they symbolize & how it gives insight into our lived realities. I N YO U R D R E A M S
The first dream recorded in history is
our minds are unconscious and we are
from the Sumerian King Dumuzi
asleep. When we dream, our experiences
of Uruk in 2500 BC during the Mesopo-
are as real as our waking state. We hear
tamian civilization. “An eagle seizes
things, see things, feel things and have
a lamb from the sheepfold,” a translation
vivid emotions. Dreams can be visual
reads. “A falcon catches a sparrow on
depictions of our fears, daily occurrences,
the red fence. The cup lies on it’s side; and
unconscious desires and sometimes they
Dumuzi lives no more. The sheepfold is
occur from signals from the brain, body
given to the winds.” The king was freaked
during our sleep cycle. They can be
out about his dream warning him of
abstract, bizarre, random, signs of advice
his death and descent, and even occasioned
or warning, depending on how we’re
the first recorded dream interpretation,
feeling, our mental and physical health,
given by his sister, who was evidently a
what we’re going through, and how
professional at dream interpreting. His
long we’ve slept or haven’t. All of these
sister’s advice on his dream; some bad shit
factor into what we dream about, how
is about to go down, so he should go into
often we dream, and if we remember our
hiding ASAP. So what exactly is a dream?
dreams. By exploring, documenting, and
Well, dreams are many things. A dream
visualizing, we hope you find inspiration
is a collection of images, ideas, words,
in the content to be more curious about
emotions and sensations that occur when
your own dreams, and what they mean.
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In Your Dreams
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Artists, musicians and creative types have always had a long-term fascination with dreams in their songs, lyrics, and visual aestethic since the beginning of time. Musicians have used dreams for overarching subject matter to talk about our inner worlds, our desires and fears, and to celebrate the incredibly strange phenomenon that is dreaming. Here, we rank the top 6 songs about dreams.
The best songs about dreaming
A D R E AM E RS G U I D E TO SONGS ABOUT DREAMING
In Your Dreams
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SONGS ABOUT DREAMING
1977 D R E A M S FL E E T WO O D M AC
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“Thunder only happens when it’s raining” Stevie Nicks sings poetically in the 1977 hazy love ballad about her former relationship with bandmate Lindsay Buckingham. Soft and spookily, she addresses the pain, loneliness and past memories she now sees her former lover dream about since the relationship ended. Stevie supposedly wrote this classic ballad in 10 minutes, immediately recorded it on cassette and then showed her bandmates to record. The song
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S L E E P TO D R E A M FI O NA AP PL E
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1996
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went to become Fleetwood Mac’s only number one hit.
“I got my feet on the ground and I don’t go to sleep to dream” Fiona confesses with confidence in the powerful opening track from her 1996 debut Tidal. The songs theme plays off the concept of a dishonest lover who doesn’t care for Fiona anymore, with an outlet of escaping her problems through sleep. Her lyrics confront the lover throughout with a brute, truthful force; don’t fuck with Fiona Apple. The song represents self-resilience, self-respect and is one of Fiona Apple’s greatest, most radical pieces of work to date.
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SONGS ABOUT DREAMING
MBE 1985
AN D D R E A M O F S H E E P K AT E B U S H
“Let me be weak, and let me dream of sheep” Kate Bush states in “And dream of sheep” the sixth track off her 1985 album “Hounds of Love”. The first half of the album represents stories of intimacy, and desire. While, the second half of the album addresses the “Ninth wave” which stories a woman lost at sea with only a life jacket to guide her. This is the first song off the Ninth wave, which shows the characters’ desire to give up on life, and longing for death. She’s exhausted and waiting for someone to save her, but no one does, in which she falls asleep waiting.
1987 L AST N I G H T I D R E A M T T H E S M I T H S
“Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me” Morrissey says in the opening of the 1987 hit song from Strangeways, Here We Come. In a typical woe-is-me Morrissey fashion,
no one actually does love him.
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In Your Dreams
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only to wake up to realize it was only a “false alarm” and
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the record, describes Morrissey’s angsty and miserable “nobody loves me” feeling. Morrissey finds love in his dreams
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the world is against him and he cannot find a single soul on earth to love him. The song, showing up in the middle of
SONGS ABOUT DREAMING
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1993 D R E A M S T H E C R AN B E R R I E S
“You’re a dream to me” Dolores O’Riordan closes her hazy and layered 1993 hit love ballad “Dreams”. Dreams is the second track off the Cranberries 1993 debut “Everybody else is doing it, so why cant we?”, an album that became their most critically acclaimed. The songs simple yet captivating structure and dreamy chords cause this song to get stuck in your head all day. The theme of this song is simple; falling in love with someone you didn’t expect to also love you back. “I know i’ve felt this before, but i’m feeling it even more” a lyric describing the special connection Dolores feels to her new lover, a connection more valid than any previous relationship shes been involved in; likening them to a “dream”. What makes this song so unique is the beautiful, care-free and gentle atmospheric feeling she is able to create without being overly cheesy or too heavy-handed.
1971 PI L LOW O F W I N D S PI N K FL OY D
“Now wake the awl, now sleeps the swan, behold the dream, the dream is gone” Roger waters slowly and hazily whispers over a soft, ambient guitar and atmospheric sound. A pillow of winds is Pink Floyd’s 2nd song off Meddle, released in 1971. The song, in contrast to the albums opening track, One of these days, is a relaxing, layered and textural song with lyrics meant to evoke sleepiness, and the feeling of dreaming. “A cloud of eider down, draws around me softening the sound” Waters quietly sings over a back drop
the outer world. The song describes the fleeting nature of
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feeling of sleeping as a ritual humans use to escape from
SON
dreams as we wake “Behold a dream, the dream is gone”.
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worldliness of sleeping, and also the strange comforting
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floating in another universe. The song expresses the other-
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of a soft slide guitar that makes you feel as though you’re
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DREAMS
TO
LISTEN
LISTEN
TO
YOUR
TO
YOUR
TO
YOUR
DREAMS
TO
NIGHTMARES
You wake up in the middle of the night, sweating and anxiously looking around with your eyes just barely peeking out your covers to see if Pennywise is hiding in your closet. You calm yourself by remembering it was only a dream, but the vivid details of the clown chasing after you keeps you on edge until the morning. Why do our brains dream of such horrific and unpleasant things in our sleeping state?
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In Your Dreams
Supposedly, some say that our nightmares are actually extremely beneficial to us. Nightmares prepare us and keep us on edge for our own survival. That’s right, our nightmares relate to Darwin’s theory of evolution. Our nightmares are a way for our brain to essentially practice life-threatening situations, so that in our conscious state, if these situations arise, we are able to able to have a response already considered. In that case, binge watch as many horror movies as you can before bed—it’ll only do you good in the long run.
DREAM RE-CALLING
R E M E M BERING
YO UR
D R E A M S : A G U I D E
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In Your Dreams
DREAM RE-CALLING
We spend one-third of our lives asleep, and six years of our lives dreaming, yet most of us can’t even remember our dreams at all. No one really has an explanation as to why. Many researchers believe that if we remembered all of our dreams, we wouldn’t be able to distinguish them from our real memories. It also might have to do with our bodies response during the REM cycle of our sleep cycle. During this time, our body shuts down systems in our brain responsible for creating memories. We only remember the dreams we have right before we wake up when certain parts of the brain are reactivated again. Some also suggest we don’t actually forget out dreams, our brain just deems some too mundane to remember. So, what are some ways we can trick our brain into remembering our dreams?
01 TIP ONE
KEEP A DREAM JOURNAL This is most obvious. In order for you to remember the dreams, writing in your journal will help you begin to train your brain. Keep your journal as close to your bed as possible and avoid doing anything else in the morning. Don’t check your phone, make breakfast, get dressed, etc, because you will forget the details which will help you better interpret. Try to write at least something every day; even if it’s just single words or short sentences. You could even record your voice too if that helps, as well.
02 TIP TWO
DON’T SET AN ALARM Using an alarm in the morning causes alertness in our brain, and we focus on the noise when we wakeup, instead of our dreams. We then immediately think of work, or our school day ahead of us, and get distracted. Go to sleep early, and your body will become adapted and just wakeup.
03 TIP THREE
T R Y TA K I N G V I TA M I N B 6 New research has found that Vitamin B6 can help people recall their dreams. Vitamin B6 will not affect vividness, or strangeness of your dreams, but it helps you remember more clearly, so that you don’t forget the small details. Vitamin B6 occurs naturally in most foods. It also can help you lucid dream more; which is beneficial in of itself in a lot of ways including; reducing phobias and nightmares.
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REAMS
In Your Dreams
DREAMS
DRE AM
SONGS ABOUT DREAMING
A Collection
Of 3 People’s Reoccuring Dreams
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BEAR DREAM
BEAR DREAM
BE AR D R E AM
About a year ago I started having this reoccurring vivid
Kayla Rich
dream. It was around the time I was preparing for a big hiking trip in the woods, 6 days in the Pemigewasset wilderness with some friends who were more experienced than me. It always started with me hiking on the trail, sometimes I’m with my friends and sometimes I’m alone. It’s midday, the sun is bright and shining through the bright green leaves above, casting silhouettes on the dirt trail. I have my pack on and a hatchet or knife clipped to the waist of my pack. Suddenly, the hairs stand on the back of my neck and I sense something coming. Something big. Its usually at this moment I round the corner of the trail, or turn around , and spot a gigantic, larger than life bear at this moment. Its huge like three people high, brown which is odd because grizzlies aren’t found in New England, or sometimes white which is known as a spirit bear, and has these bright yellow eyes.
SONGS ABOUT DREAMING
I always have the sense that I alone have to fight the bear, either to protect myself or my friends. It charges and I try to duck, roll, take out my hatchet or knife, and fight for my life. I’m never really scared for some reason, just prepared, as if I knew this was going to happen all along. Almost every time the bear is able to swipe me with its claws, usually across my face or chest. A lot of times I snap awake before the end but I have a feeling that my friends are safe or that I at least had the upper hand. This repeated almost every day that summer before during, and after the trip. I was paranoid of bears during the trip, but have since become a more active and regular hiker so it’s become more of a precaution in the back of my head like any other hiker would have.
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In Your Dreams
T H E MOV I N G DR E A M
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In Your Dreams
T H E MOV I N G DR E A M
T H E M OV I N G D R E A M Katie Silver
One dream I have is about moving. Which I have not done in three years. I was moving into Davis Square into a fairly smallish apartment. But as I moved further into the place, it began to get
larger
There was floor to ceiling windows facing a courtyard and large pine trees and mountains were visible out the other, not exactly Somerville. My friend Heidi was going to be one of my new roommates. In the back of the apartment, it opened up to a huge living space with a kitchen and living room, it looked like a California home. It was very dark and filled with old stuff. High
and
bookshelves with clutter, old furniture. We learned that an old man had passed away and we needed to clear out all of this stuff before we moved in. So depressing. I’m with my parents at this point, getting rid of all of these books and junk. I’m feeling extremely stressed and overwhelmed. And it’s a bit blurry but after we are done clearing everything away, the room suddenly becomes the kitchen of my childhood home. It looks very 70s, the floor has this ornate orange ornamental flower pattern
larger on linoleum or something like that. And then I wake up.
T H E MOV I N G DR E A M
It
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d th wi
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of
clutter,
ol d
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stuff.
t ni
etc. e, r u
h b o ok s h e l v es H ig
wi t
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In Your Dreams
T H E MOV I N G DR E A M
ma n d ha pa
ss
and ed moved in. we
o
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ut r o ea
all of th is
st
uf
f
f be
e or
we ne
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We
ed that an o arn ld le
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BEETLEJUICE DREAM
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I N YO U R D R E A M S
BEETLEJUICE DREAM
BEETLEJUICE DREAM Anonymous
I always have this weird reoccuring dream about the house from BeetleJuice. It might be because Beetlejuice was my favorite movie when I was a little kid, or if my brain just remembers the specific quality and bizareness of the house itself. I usually dream about this house around Christmas time for whatever reason. Whenever I dream about the house, I usually feel like I’m an outsider of some sort, like I don’t belong. It definetely keeps the eerie vibe that the house has in the movie, and cobwebs are covered all over the place. I usually feel incredibly overwhelmed and scared as if something is about to happen. The last time I dreamt about the house, the characters who live in the other spiritual realm are all living there together and they can’t see me. They go about their business and I just stay out of their way. I kind of wander around and some rooms are small and some are strangely large. Every time I’m wandering around, I can’t get rid of the feeling that some presence is watching me. Some rooms are highly decorative and bizarre, other rooms are abandoned and tiny and are covered in bugs and cobwebs. Some rooms are exact replications of my childhood home.
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SONGS ABOUT DREAMING
I FEEL LIKE I’M BEING TRICKED &
BEING USED LIKE I’M IN A SORT OF
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In Your Dreams
BEETLEJUICE DREAM
The house is incredibly expansive and I get lost wandering. Certain halls lead to nothing and certain halls I walk down lead you into a circle, and I know this but I can’t stop going down the hallways that get me lost in there anyway. Theres a certain cigarette-stained wall stench that lingers all over the place. I always feel somewhat queasy in the house, and none of the rooms have windows that can open, and doors lead to more rooms that lead you into a maze like contraption. I feel like I’m being tricked and being used like something is controlling me like I’m in a maze. I sometimes hear a mocking laughter as I walk around and it makes me feel like I’m in some sort of a trance. I know of all these tricks because I constantly have this dream but yet I can’t stop opening the same doors and going down the same halls. It’s mind-jarring and I feel scared and can’t really focus or have control over anything. There is this one door that I open, a bright red door that leads to that scene in the film where Adam and Barbara open the door and it’s just a sea of sand and there are the weird monsters going in and out of the sand. I do the same thing, and whatever is putting me in the trance pushes me into the sand where the monsters live and at this point I usually wakeup. I’ve experienced this dream for the last decade, and I still am not sure what it means.
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SONGS ABOUT DREAMING
Angela Kelly A N I N T E RV I E W W I T H :
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In Your Dreams
A RT I S T I N T E RV I E W
We sat down to talk with Angela Kelly a 21 year old artist based in Boston who explores her dreams through her work by recreating them visually. Can you talk a little bit about your work and what you like to do and how you started? I like to make paintings about my dreams and memories. Sometimes the memories and dreams meld into each other. I have always been a storyteller type person who is too emotional and sensitive. Over the past couple of years I have gotten into ceramics, music, fiber arts, prints, films, etc. But I have mainly focused on painting. I’m currently trying to combine my narrative paintings with my poetry. My poetry would serve as music, more than just spoken word. I want to make paintings about dreams and then songs about my paintings and songs about pigmen and maybe paintings about pigmen too. I hope some people like them because I like validation a lot (that’s what I get being the youngest child and a gemini!!) How have your dreams impacted your work overall, and what motivates you to create? My dreams impacted my work by changing my work completely. I am a perfectionist type person, in the way where I want my thoughts to be perfect and the
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A RT I S T I N T E RV I E W
trajectory of how I got good at something
I have the mentality of a baby because
to be perfect too. It was common practice
sometimes I want to revert back to the
every other morning growing up to wake
unconsciousness of dreaming most of
up and tell my sister the recent fucked up
the time and have no responsibilities.
dream I had. Then her & I would talk about
Like when people tell you that they kinda
it, sketch about it, make sims families
feel like they aren’t dying when they’re
about it, etc. I’m a family person, a social
dying, and that they relay through their
person, and I like to cling to my memories
whole lives again in real time. I do that at
with people I truly care about and have the
hyperspeed every single day. I reflect on
associations be the reason I create.
my life constantly even though I’m 21. I’ve been like this since I can remember.
Why do they inspire you?
I feel like dreams are a summary of the
My dreams make me feel like I am not
morbid thoughts I don't even want to think
gonna die or that I will be wrapped up
or acknowledge and fears, insecurities
in my grandma’s arms as a five year old
& failures about myself. I think my dreams
girl perpetually on a braided rug. It makes
are honest and they replicate exactly
me feel like I won’t die and nothing bad
how I feel. I have always had a very strong
will happen to me. I always made fun of
visual intuition and the dreams I have
R I G H T : Untitled, 2017
areextremely visual, to say the least. It’s relatively easy to remember.
L E F T : Ringworm, 2017
adult baby fetishisers as a teenager when I found out they existed but hey, I guess
In Your Dreams
SONGS ABOUT DREAMING
“
I like to cling to my memories with people I care about and have the association of those memories be the reason I create. Who influences your style?
and they are. I meditate on my dreams a lot
When I was 17, I was really into Chris
even though I’m not the type of person to
Mars. Mars actually is inspired by his
really be meditative.
severely schizophrenic brother who has auditory and visual hallucinations.
Do you use any specific methods to
He wants to destigmatize as well as hum-
help you remember your dreams?
anize people with severe mental illness.
I usually voice record my dreams now as
Before I even knew that, the disgusting
soon as I realized I’ve woken up and I try
and grotesque people that he depicted
to keep my eyes closed because that keeps
reminded me exactly of these creatures I
the dream contained. Then I write about
depicted for a while called “pigmen”. When
it. Then I think about it for half the day
I was 19, I was really into Odilon Redon
while I do other things. Then I tell my
(and still am!) Redon is still grotesque but
friends, or sketch about it. Maybe I write
I guess in a less kitschy way. I love serious
like 2 poems and sketch 20 drawings
beauty as much as I love hokey disgusting
over the course of a week about a couple
creatures. I’m also a slut for Agnes Martin,
of dreams I had. Or vice versa.
she’s my favorite abstract expressionist. She reminds me of my grandma. Her paintings are supposed to be meditative,
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Do you ever just combine multiple dreams into one piece you’re creating? Or do you usually just focus on one dream per piece and usually just work from there? I really just want to do every dream individually but each individual dream would probably require 5 paintings each. But naturally the dreams do blend together and form together a different kind of story. I wonder if this appears as hokey or a cop out to people. I feel like when I really do focus on one dream then it’s a whole lot better. I’m scatterbrained. It’s hard. Sketching constantly and writing a lot every day really helps me!
Lastly, is there anything else you want to let us know about your dreams and your work overall? Yeah! There are a lot of avenues I want to go down while just representing my work. As I said earlier about making songs connected to my paintings and vice versa, I really wanna do this with multiple mediums. I really enjoy creating ceramics, music, painting, prints, fiber arts, etc. and I feel like the dreams and memories I have are a constant source of good information. I love painting and always have, but I wonder if there can be different ways I can display my dreams in different formats. I feel like I have my concepts locked down, now I need to go explore a lot of different mediums again before I graduate this year.
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In Your Dreams
SONGS ABOUT DREAMING
“
There are a lot of avenues I want to really go down while representing my work. I feel like the dreams and memories I have are a constant source of information for me.
“
T O P L E F T : Percenpose, 2017 B O T T O M L E F T : Why does every aborted fetus look like a sea monkey, 2017 R I G H T : Unwelcome Crawler in Wellesley, 2017
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T O P L E F T : Untitled, 2017 B O T T O M L E F T : Untitled, 2018 T O P R I G H T : Scareica, 2018 B O T T O M R I G H T : Theremin, 2018
A RT I S T I N T E RV I E W