YOUR DREAMS (?)
that brings together contemporary art, psychology, and documentary sound.
It represents a new form of artistic psychology an archive of the inner worlds of remarkable individuals and a rare opportunity for the viewer to hear themselves through the stories of others.
The project creates a unique environment in which the audience listens not to music or text, but to human dreams, memories, and internal states recorded through
the artist’s own psychological method.
At the core of the project are the voices of outstanding, unconventionally thinking individuals.
Their responses are sincere, vulnerable, and unexpected
a psychological cross-section of some of the finest minds of our time.
The project already includes a scientific study on the effects of audio on emotional states. Its results confirmed by a psychotherapist and a clinical psychologist indicate that the installation may be applied therapeutically in the treatment of affective personality disorders.
2021
- INSTALLATION -
First Part
The visual aspect, where on the branches of a white tree, instead of leaves, there are shotgun shell casings smeared with paint. The tree branches symbolize the path of life, and the shell casings represent the opinions of others that shoot at our dreams, causing us to feel ashamed and give up our own. These opinions can be beautiful, but they are not our own. Afterward, we start to aspire to the imposed ideals, following alternative branches, but, having achieved success in them, we don't understand why we are not happy. The same happened to me. One day I felt the opinions of others like gum stuck to a shoe, which can be scraped off at any moment to walk your own path. This is precisely why the shell casings have the color and scent of gum - "bubble gum".
An audio component recorded with binaural microphones in the ASMR format, creating an immersive experience when listened to with headphones. The audio consists of answers to questions I pose to interesting individuals I encounter in my life. These questions are about love, life's journey, the meaning of life, our perception of reality, and questions that immerse us in childhood memories and help us recall our dreams. Once, upon asking these questions to myself, I began to notice changes in my life.
- Random Order -
Coincidences are not truly random; they may appear so, but they can lead to something greater. All we need to do is believe and let events unfold.
- Everything Can Be Meditation -
By focusing our attention on the present moment, we sense the world more broadly, life's processes accelerate, and everything becomes a playful experience.
- State of Mind -
The only thing that matters is the state of mind we're in. A minor overload can pull us out of others' games, offering a detached perspective on the situation and restoring a sense of wholeness.
- Reality is Something More -
The ASMR audio format creates an effect of personal presence and transforms certain sounds into sensations of "gentle euphoria".
- There's Nothing External -
Listening to personal stories and experiencing the emotions of others, we first immerse ourselves in their lives. Then, we begin to ask these questions to ourselves. By diving into the worlds of others, we come closer to our true selves, recalling what truly matters to us.
Creation Story of the Installation:
The collaborative project's stipulation was that each member had to contribute to an individual installation. While the theme was set by the visual component, I desired a deeper engagement for the audience. The solution was the audio aspect, incorporating the voices of every project participant as well as some of my friends.
I compiled questions designed to evoke pleasant memories and help individuals reconnect with themselves. I had been unable to answer the final question myself for many years.
The concept was that the answers to the questions would be edited and played back to the listener in a random sequence. The aim was that, for instance, three different individuals experiencing the installation would hear different segments and, upon leaving the museum, share what they'd heard. Anticipating that visitors would listen for 3-5 minutes, I created 25 minutes of content. During the first showcase, many individuals listened until the very end, and a queue formed around the installation.
That's when I realized that much more audio content was necessary.
Before long, the process itself became engrossing and an integral part of my life.
- DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM -
It consists of the visual aspect, where on the branches of a white tree, instead of leaves, there are shotgun shell casings smeared with paint. The tree branches symbolize the path of life, and the shell casings represent the opinions of others that shoot at our dreams, causing us to feel ashamed and give up our own. These opinions can be beautiful, but they are not our own. Afterward, we start to aspire to the imposed ideals, following alternative branches, but, having achieved success in them, we don't understand why we are not happy. The same happened to me. One day I felt the opinions of others like gum stuck to a shoe, which can be scraped off at any moment to walk your own path. This is precisely why the shell casings have the color and scent of gum - "bubble gum".
Second Part – an audio component recorded with binaural microphones in the ASMR format, creating an immersive experience when listened to with headphones. The audio consists of answers to questions I pose to interesting individuals I encounter in my life. These questions are about love, life's journey, the meaning of life, our perception of reality, and questions that immerse us in childhood memories and help us recall our dreams. Once, upon asking these questions to myself, I began to notice changes in my life.
It is recommended to view with headphones
Your Dreams (?)
Maxim Timofeev creates an artistic environment that works with the conscious and preconscious levels of perception.
The voice holds attention, ASMR and binaural sound immerse the listener in an intimate acoustic space, questions activate memory, nostalgia returns a person to significant episodes, and dreaming opens an image of the future.
Key Research Areas in the Thesis
1. Hypnotically Organized Sound Environment
The thesis examines the path from directive forms of hypnosis to the Ericksonian model, where influence is built through voice, pause, absorption, redistribution of attention, utilization, and gentle guidance. The work directly describes hypnosis as a model for organizing voice-based and sound-based interaction, while maintaining distance from clinical intervention.
2. Attention as a Guided Psychological Process
The listener begins to hear other people’s answers alongside their own associations, inner reactions, and forgotten desires.
The project creates a rare situation for a contemporary person: attention stops scattering and begins to gather around personal experience.
3. Nostalgia and Dreaming as a Research Territory
In art, dreaming often appears as a poetic motif. In this work, dreaming is examined as a psychological mechanism.
The thesis separately highlights research on nostalgia by Constantine Sedikides and Tim Wildschut, research on music-evoked autobiographical memory by Petr Janata, as well as the theme of future images and possible selves.
Nostalgia returns a person to episodes where warmth, closeness, belief in oneself, or a sense of direction already existed. Dreaming carries this material into the future: what from this may still become life, choice, or creative action.
The installation works with something a person often loses in an overloaded environment: access to their own desire.
4. Audiochronotope as an Authorial Tool
Audiochronotope is an authorial framework based on Bakhtin’s concept of the chronotope. In the thesis, it is transferred into the sound environment: sound organizes the experience of time and space, guiding the listener through the past, the present, and the imagined future.
Through the analysis of participants’ responses, four configurations were identified:
- natural space and cyclical time;
- the space of the path and directed time;
- domestic and family space of everyday time;
- threshold situations of transitional time.
Participants begin to describe their experience through recognizable inner spaces: home, path, nature, transition. Sound helps personal memory take form.
Block | Authors / Approaches | What It Gives the Project |
Auditory Scene and Sound | Albert Bregman, Jens Blauert | explains how the voice becomes the main figure of perception |
ASMR and Binaurality | Giulia Poerio and ASMR research | explains bodily immersion, the intimacy of sound, and tension reduction |
Non-Directive Influence | Carl Rogers, Milton Erickson | provides a model of gentle guidance without imposing meaning |
Nostalgia and Memory | Sedikides, Wildschut, Janata | shows the connection between sound, autobiographical memory, and emotional regulation |
Audiochronotope | M. M. Bakhtin + authorial adaptation | provides a language for analyzing time, space, and personal experience |
Methodology | Braun & Clarke; Creswell, Tashakkori, Teddlie | provides the research basis: interviews, thematic analysis, mixed methods |
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