Deciphered Dreams

[Apollonian and the Dionysian]

“Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered.” - José Saramago, The Double

Fg.4.1. Quadratic functions and Thompson transformations based on parametric variation. Thomas Fischer, “Design Enigma: A Typographical Metaphor for Epistemological Processes, Including Designing,” Proceedings of the 17th Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), 2012, https://doi.org/10.52842/ conf.caadria.2012.679.

The AI can be considered as an Apollonian apparatus which presents divine shapes and forms from the dream (Traum), however, the poem input is on the side of Dionysus, an analogy to intoxication(Rausch). A dreamer following the principle of individuation can be seen as an apollonian, but if a dream is derived from the mementoes, it became part of the Dionysus choruses.

Dalí is often perceived by the public as a follower of Dionysus. However, Dalí is not a total Dionysian artist. At a certain point, he even paranoically identified himself as a humble apparatus of Apollo. Dalí often wrote for the opposite of what is attributed to him. As Dalí describes in his manifesto – My Battle:

“Against simplicity, For complexity

Against the collective, For the individual

Against mechanism, For the dream

Against music, For architecture

Against abstraction, For the concrete …” 19