Fragments of Sleep in a Montage of Dreams.

   My dreams generally appear to me as an abstract, fragmented compilation of obscure events. They generally reveal factual, conscious images and thoughts cross-combined with images, thoughts and events of the sub-conscious, spliced together in a jumpy fragmented sequence. Dreams at times seem almost reminiscent of films the likes of Bunuel and Dali’s ‘Une Chien Andalou’ (1925) or Dziga Vertov’s ‘Man with a Movie Camera’ (1929).

   Film such as these where part of an innovative wave in the filmmaking industry in the early 20^th century. Artists, photographers and filmmakers alike began to experiment with a new type of movie. Splicing sections of film together in a discontinuous manner and embracing the media’s limitations and qualities as opposed to hiding them.

   Since this turning point in the film industry, it has become accepted that movies are discontinuous, they don’t always make sense in a logical manner, the viewer accepts that; to understand the movie requires cognitive participation to decipher it. Modern examples such as; Aronofsky’s ‘Requiem for a Dream,’ perfectly demonstrate how this style has integrated itself within the film industry.

   Realizing that this ‘dream like’ discontinuous and fragmented style has not always been understood or recognized has led me to a series of questions; are our dreams influenced by film, fragmentation and montage, sub-consciously inspiring the way we dream and influencing the structure of our thoughts? Prior to the exposure of this style did we dream in a logical, continuous manner? Or did we just accept that dreams existed in a sequence that did not make full sense? Finally, I feel there is a logical potentiality that; the fragmented structure of a dream or nightmare could have provided the initial inspiration to videographers the likes of ‘Vertov.’

   These questions are logically impossible to answer, just like the content of dreams themselves as neither the content of these queries or the content of a dream can be proven or make complete sense. However, it is food for thought.