The Sea Of Slumber
Sleep
A condition of body and mind which typically recurs for several hours every night, in which the nervous system is inactive, the eyes closed, the postural muscles relaxed, and consciousness practically suspended.
Dream
A series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep.
Nightmare
A frightening or unpleasant dream.
What does sleep look like?
Many images of sleep or peoples representation of dreams consist of surreal landscapes and vivid colours. Certain aspects are out of place and things that do not usually mix seem to gel together. These surreal landscapes have a certain tranquility about them and do not particularly fit into a specific time frame or age, they feel limitless and are own there own space.
Ibis Sleep Art
The Ibis robot's paintings look a lot like the universe to me. Multiple galaxies intertwined on one canvas. I am curious to weather this is what the programmers intended or if it is just a lucky coincidence.
Lucid Dreaming
A lucid dream is any dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming.
Astral Projections
Astral projection (or astral travel) is an interpretation of out-of-body experience (OBE) that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it.
http://louisdyer.com/
Louis Dyer is a 22 year old speed painter from Plymouth, his work is based on his experiences of lucid dreams and astral projection. His use of elements that do not work in realty give the impression of being somewhere else. To me in the above piece the person appears to be in out of space or on a moon. None of these places have an atmosphere, any wind, oxygen or water, yet there is still a man walking next to a pond with a huge bit of fabric blowing in the wind.
"I started running up a hill and when I hit the top I jumped off the edge. As I was falling I was completely lucid, everything was so clear, I could feel the air rushing past me as I fell, I could feel the warmth of the sun beams and control the clouds with my hands. This was my first lucid dream, it was brief but it was really special."
Running, Louis Dyer
Louis's first lucid dream from the above quote.
Louis has a very special gift as he gets to experience lucid dreaming much more often than most people. Being such a talented artist wish such a gift is leads to some beautiful artwork. I have only ever had one lucid dream and it was very brief. I realised i was dreaming and started running, as i was running i slowly started to ascend until logic kicked in, i lost my balance and fell which in turn woke me up. Since that time i have been trying to recreate the experience to no avail.
Lee Hadwin
Lee
Hadwin is a 37 year old artist that can only paint when he is asleep.
He creates portraits of Marilyn Monroe and many other abstract pieces
but is not aware of what he has created until he wakes up. Drawing in his sleep since the age of 4 his artistic talents started to emerge around 13-15 years old. Lee draws on walls, tables, old newspapers and clothes - with pens, crayons, paints, coal or anything he can get his hands on. Over the years his work has become more detailed to the point it is today (seen below). I find this thoroughly fascinating to how it is possible and can only imagine the excitement of waking up every morning to see what you have created.
Lee just amazes, and puzzles me as i do no see how this is possible. I will be keeping an eye on his work and researching how this is possible in the future. He recently sold his entire collection for 1 million dollars.
Sleep deprivation
The
lack of sleep has many side effects, the most common are feeling grumpy, fatigue, having a short temper, lack of focus and not working at your best. There are far more serious risks worth regular poor sleep, these
include obesity, diabetes, heart disease and shortened life
expectancy. A good sleeping pattern is necessary for a long and
healthy life.
Eugène Carrière, Sleep, 1897
Eugène Carrière, Sleep, 1897
Eugene Carriere, Sleep, 1897
Eugène Carrière, Sleep, 1897
Eugène Carrière, Sleep, 1897
Sleep required by age
- New born – 2 months old = 12/18 hours
- 3 months – 1 year = 14/15 hours
- 1 year – 3 years = 12/14 hours
- 3 years – 5 years = 11/13 hours
- 5 years – 12 years = 10/11 hours
- 12 – 18 years = 8.5/10 hours
- 18+ years = 7.5/9 hours
This is a rough guide and
people and some people do require a little more or less. If you wake
up and crave a nap during the day then it is likely you have no had
enough sleep. An occasional night without enough sleep will leave you
grumpy but will not have a detrimental effect on your health. Several
nights without the proper amount of sleep will have more severe
consequences. The brain begins to fog which in turns leads to a lack
of concentration and impair your ability to make decisions. This in
turn increases your chance of injury while at home, work or driving.
Positives attributed to
correct amount of sleep.
- Sleep boosts in immunity
- Sleep can slim you down
- Sleep boosts your mental well being
- Sleep increases your sex drive
- Sleep increases your fertility
Torture
Sleep deprivation is a
well-known method of torture and has been used for many years. The practice makes the victims more suggestible, reduces their
psychological resistance and lowers their resistance to pain. The practice is primarily used to break the will of the detainee.
Sleep deprivation impairs
the memory, cognitive functions, decreases short term memory, speech
impairment, hallucinations, psychosis, lowered immunity, headaches,
high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, stress, anxiety and
depression.
Night Terrors and
Nightmares
A person experiencing
night terrors may scream, shout, thrash around and may not recognise
you when you try to comfort them. This generally happens when the
person is suddenly woken from NREM sleep. Night terrors are most
prevalent in children between ages 3 and 8 years old and do not
generally have long term psychological effects. They usually occur in
the early part of the night and can last up to 15 minutes. Night
terrors are more common in children with a family of night terrors
and sleepwalking. If you witness a person having night terrors and
they are not hurting themselves then it is not a good idea to wake
them, wait until the episode has ended.
Triggers
- Certain types of medication.
- Tiredness.
- Fever.
- Increase in the amount of deep sleep.
- Things that make you wake suddenly from deep sleep. (Excitement, anxiety or sudden noise.
Nightmares occur during
deep sleep (REM) sleep and the person can commonly be remembered when
the person wakes up. Nightmares are most common in children aged
between 3 and 6 years old.
What makes things scarey
"The human face is supremely important on a social and biological level. Most of our non-verbal communication comes from reading subtle facial movements, and its importance in our cognitive thinking is best shown in our tendency to see faces in inanimate objects (think of how many times you've looked at a rock face and thought you'd seen two eyes and a mouth ). So there's something genuinely disturbing to most people about seeing a face visibly distorted, mutated, or rearranged ... so, naturally, this type of body horror is one of the most common Horror Tropes!"
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NightmareFace
Visual Cues for sleep.
A well known technique for representing the start of a dream of flashback is using screen wobbles lines or ripples combined with a blur. These generally fade in or out and contain twinkly music.
Wayne's World, 1992
There are some icons that are common usage in sleep based art, these include:
- Stars
Z's - Clocks
- Sheep
- The Moon
- Eyes (In a tired or asleep position)
Target Audience
Massive Attack V Mad Professor, 1994
Artwork by Michael Nash Associates
Teenage culture is so varied nowadays that is a little more difficult to pin it down to a dress code. With such a wide array of styles, music, influences, trends and the internet in general, teenagers are a very diverse bunch. The use of the symbols, icons and logos will be a much better way to draw in the intended audience.
"The first surprise was the almost complete absence of trends. They are more concerned with what their peers are wearing than they are with what Miuccia Prada is inspired by this season."
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/16/teenage-fashion-style
Here are a few of the logos and symbols used by teenagers in 2014
http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/target-markets.html
Things that help and prevent sleep, (The battle for sleep)
A battle for sleep consisting of two forces, one that helps people sleep and the other that keeps people awake. Taken literally, the items that help people sleep. Alternatively one side could represent dreams and the other could represent nightmares. These would consist of things that represent either side. The side that helps a person sleep (the dream team) would be based on perfection and beauty and the other side (the nightmare team) would be based on deformity and terror. An example of this would be Warhammer 40k with the space marines. The good side with smooth ornate armor embellished with holy iconography. The evil side with uneven spiked armor adorned in demonic iconocrapgy. The two sides are a good representation of what people commonly associate with good and evil. A combination of dreamy helpful things and nightmarish unhelpful things would work really well. Frankenstein's monster IPhone and The Ring girl style lamp vs halo burger and the winged sleep mask.
Alarm Clocks
Influences and images i like
The Brave Little Toaster, Cutting Edge
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