Languages of Imagination: Film and Dream

Linda Koncz co-created the online collection of 1.700 dreams found at www.dreampire.com. These are recorded talking head interviews of people describing what they dreamt at night in London, Lisbon, and Budapest. Patterns emerged from the collection and categorization of the interviews. The most recurrent cultural and historical characters mentioned in the dream stories are Hitler, Michael Jackson, Spiderman, Superman, Indiana Jones, and God. This finding led to a further investigation of how dreams and films influence each other. We live in a visually dominant era, where not only dreams affect cinema but, inversely, filmic representations affect the way we dream. Linda’s Ph.D. research examines how the two visual media, dreams and cinema borrow tools from each other. It further explores how cultural patterns circulate between these two medium within the theoretical framework of Narrative Theory, Psychoanalytical Film Theory, Critical Theory and Cultural Theory. The research aims to shed light on how cultural constructions move between different media and how the subconscious mind plays an active role in transferring, modifying, and stabilizing cultural elements in cultural memory. The author has curated several exhibitions in London, Budapest, Lisbon and Berlin, where she invited local artists to choose dreams from the collection and use them as inspiration for their art pieces. The author will also discuss Improvisation Performance, Animation, Exhibitions and Installation.