Self-defined Project Proposal

 

18/11/2020

In this project, I will create another painting as a continuation of the Zzzz project’s painting. The painting will, again, narrate one of my dreams that impressed me the most. These two paintings would be in the same size, same medium (Oil) and share the same concept (Dreams, Brain, Fragments). 

 

My project

 

In this project, I decided to create another painting that narrates one of my dreams that impressed me the most. It was a dream I had at my home in Stony Brook during quarantining. I saw scenes with a lot of wood in front of me. I did not see the shapes of the woods, but many colors of the woods help me to recognize those are woods. I was thinking the reason why I dreamed about woods was because of the environment I stayed in. I was locked in a place with nature, trees (little forest), animals and sky around the house.

This painting “Woods” , along with the abstract oil painting “Seaside,” would make a series of work on dreams. Both dreams happened in Stony Brook, but in my brain, they are in different locations and representing different things. In the Zzzz project, the painting “Seaside” represents the fragments that happened on my brain located in Macau, such as my memory of my hometown, sad emotion (That big rain) and the sense of missing home. The self-defined project, “Woods”, represents the fragments that happened on my brain located in Stony Brook, such as the nature it has around me, that peaceful mindset I gain from being alone for three months during the quarantine. 

 

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Before starting to make the artwork about dream, I first researched what would happen to our brain when we are sleeping: 

https://blogcastle.lib.fcu.edu.tw/archives/5512

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/what-happens-when-you-sleep

 

What would happen to our brain when we sleep?

 

When a person enters sleep, the brain will continue to work. If they are not given enough sleep time, a series of problems will occur. When a person sleeps, the body and brain will recharge cells, clean up waste, and deepen memory. All these processes are essential to protect the overall health of people. 

 

During a person’s sleep, the brain continues to process daytime events about 80 to 85 percent of the time. For example, organize the information obtained during work or study during the day, and important or impressive things or skills will be moved from the temporary storage area to the long-term memory area. In contrast, memories that the brain thinks are not important will clear them from the temporary storage area. Related studies have pointed out that the spindle wave and rapid eye movement (REM) in the second stage of sleep are related to declarative memory and procedural memory, respectively. Generally, the things we understand through repeated practice and recitation are declarative memory, such as memorizing English words and understanding mathematical formulas. Procedural memory refers to the memory skills that obtain results through certain program operations, such as riding a bicycle, playing the piano, etc. 

 

During the other 15-20% of sleeping time, the brain is in deep sleep. The brain will break away from the sensory mode of thinking, memory and language, and enter the repair mode. Only then can the brain have a way to clear the waking brain. Waste from cellular metabolites.

 

 

Something about DREAM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream

 

Dreams are a kind of subjective experience. It is the imaginary image, sound, thought or feeling that a person produces during certain stages of sleep. It is usually involuntary.

 

In the modern era, dreams are considered to be a channel of communication with the subconscious mind. The content of the dream may be very ordinary, normal, or extremely surrealistic. Dreams can have a variety of different themes, including fear, excitement, magic, depression, adventure, or sex. The events that occur in the dream are not under the control of the dreamer, unless they are in a lucid dream, the dreamer will have self-awareness. Sometimes, dreams can give people creativity or inspiration.