The Lost Dreams

‘The Lost Dreams’ is an experimental video, exploring the experience of losing the conscious sensation of dreaming following brain surgery to remove a large tumour that had been growing since early childhood. Combining reanimated drawings from before, during and after surgery, with MRI scans, poems, rehabilitation exercises and remembered songs, ‘The Lost Dreams‘ creates immersive cycles of un/consciousness as a proxy for the physically and emotionally cleansing processes of sleep and dreaming.

Inspired by the Surrealist ‘exquisite corpse‘ drawing game - the outcome determined in equal parts by chance and intention - the visual material, the soundscape, and their subsequent combination has each been contributed seperately by a different maker. The eyes, the ears, the brain, 'played' by an artist, an ethnomusicologist, and an editor as they generate a moving image artwork to embody the shattered illusion of a single narrative voice.

Exploring drawing as a dynamic temporal process to nurture emotional and neurological healing, this work is the product of a research grant from Arts Council England.