Digital Dreamscape Project: Exploring the Surreal Through Dream Analysis

At the turn of the 20th century, the Surrealist movement sought to unlock the mysteries of the unconscious mind, drawing inspiration from Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories. Freud’s work on dream analysis suggested that our dreams reveal hidden desires, fears, and emotions, often expressed through symbolic and fantastical imagery. The Surrealists, including artists like Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, and Max Ernst, used these ideas to create dreamlike, illogical, and often unsettling visual compositions that challenged reality.

For this project, the students became modern-day Surrealists, using digital tools to explore the world of dreams. Over two weeks, they kept a dream journal, recording any dreams they could remember upon waking. They selected one or more dream sequences from these recollections to recreate as a surreal composite image digitally. Using Photoshop, they combined found images, textures, and digital painting techniques to construct a dreamscape that captures their chosen dream’s mood, symbolism, and atmosphere.

Comprehensive Gallery

iRAP Gallery