Non-existing place
For a CTS class project we had to create an idea for place that does not exist and find research material to support and flesh out our idea.
The concept we created was of entering a non-existing place within the subconscious mind. This place would be based on memory and dreams as a means to escape painful reality for terminal patients.
- “The mind can shield itself from ugly experiences, thoughts, or feelings by relegating them to a special “timeless” region”
Frederick Crews, The Memory Wars – Freud’s Legacy in Dispute
This idea of a subconscious world with the mind as a means of escaping pain came from the use of hypnosis in treating chronic pain patients:
- “Hypnotic training included suggestions to “filter out the hurt” or any sensations by imagining competing sensations.”
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis
The idea of separating the mind from the body following pain or trauma and constructing a reality from memory was also explored in the film Vanilla Sky.
When thinking about how this reality would be constructed we looked to theory on dreams and memory:
- “Characteristic of dream-memory comes out in the selection of the material reproduced. Only the most significant things that are regarded as worth remembering but on the contrary also the most trivial and unprepossessing.” – Sigmund Freud, Interpreting Dreams
The theory that only the significant memories would be used to build this reality made us think about what the background detail of this world would appear like. This page from the graphic novel “Opus” by Satoshi Kon gives a good visual reference about what the background details may look like. In “Opus” a graphic novelist travels inside his own comic and when traveling into the background details finds people have no real features and the skylines are just cardboard cut outs, as these were details that where not worth the effort creating.
We thought that the world would be Hypereal in appearance as dreams and memory are often exaggerated and can be re-constructed and overlap.
- “In the realm of the hyperreal, the distinction between simulation and the ‘real’ implodes; the ‘real’ and the imaginary continually collapse into each other. The result is that reality and simulation are experienced as without difference – operating along a roller-coaster continuum. Simulations can often be experienced as more real than the real itself – ‘even better than the real thing'”. – The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism, Stuart Sim
This advert is an example of a Hyperreal world, put together from different films and sources, creating a world of different realities folded in on one another:
The land of Oz, from the film “The Wizard of Oz” is an other example of how this Hyperreal world could look, full of saturated colours where people from Dorothy’s waking life reappear as colourful fantasy characters:
This image from the Adventure Time episode “King Worm” shows a multilayered dream reality and how its appearance differs from the real world. In the dream world the hero Finn’s appearance is slightly altered, with the ears on his hat being exaggerated. In the dream world he looks into a mirror seeing another alternative version of himself, suggesting multiple layers to the dream and subconscious:
We found different references to help explain what this world may feel like. This quote from Jean Baudrillard refers to Disneyland and how this “imaginary” place removes us from the notion of the real world and responsibility:
“This world wants to be childish in order to make us believe that the adults are elsewhere, in the “real” world.” – Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra And Simulation
As this world is formed of memory and dreams in the individuals subconscious there is also the possibility that this world could be a dark and negative place, depending on what the individuals mindset is like. We look at the film “Wristcutters: A Love Story” for reference, a film where the characters have all attempted suicide and are in a limbo like world similar to our own except everything is slightly worse, the stars never shine and no one can smile. At the end of the film two of the characters are seen waking from comas following their suicide attempts, suggesting this negative world was perhaps in their heads and influenced by their own depression.
The animated film “Paprika” by Satoshi Kon revolves around psychotherapists entering the dreams of patients to try and help them resolve issues. In the film it is remarked that “The Internet and Dreams are similar, they’re areas where the subconscious mind escapes”. This is an interesting idea as people on the internet and in dreams do not act as they do in day-to-day life and can pursue violent, hurtful or abusive behaviour through constructed personas or avatars. This idea suggests that this non-existing world within the mind of the individual could be a very dark place for some to inhabit.
These are further quotes we found on memory and dreams to help support the idea of this nonexistent place:
- “Memories are blended, not laid down independently once and for all and are reconstructed rather than reproduced”
John Sutton, Philosophy and Memory Traces - “Memory is sketchy, reconstructive and unlocalizable. Whether pleasant or unpleasant it decays drastically over time, though less so if the experience in question gets periodically “rehearsed”.
Frederick Crews, The Memory Wars – Freud’s Legacy in Dispute - Dream can access to memories unavailable to the waking person is so noteworthy and theoretically significant a fact that I now wish, by recounting other ‘hypermnestic’ dreams, to direct more attention to them. – Iinterpreting Dreams, Sigmund Freud