Co-Exploring the Visual Metaphors of the Dream
Julia Lockheart · 2022
This chapter documents my artistic practice in which I have developed visual dream interpretation within collaborative groups co-facilitated with Mark Blagrove, Professor of Sleep and Dreaming, and Director of the Sleep Lab at Swansea University. The experiential tools described here, derived from art, science and design, are part of designing an inclusive communication between both material and immaterial encounters and demonstrate the role of co-constructing meaning within the discursive process used in scientific dream interpretation. This also adds to the idea of languaging (outlined in Chapter 3 ) as a form of collaborative immaterial communication that empathically co-constructs a situated meaning-making beyond words alone. Writing from my perspectives as an artist and an experienced teacher of designers, I reflect on the viability of using dreaming as a way to open up new experiences, concepts or opportunities.