Social Dreaming
Social Dreaming works with dreams and what they say about society in the here and now, its core thesis that our dreams are an expression of the collection unconscious. This notion was first noticed and explored by the Jewish journalist Charlotte Beradt in World War Two who noticed how Nazi persecution of Jews was expressed through dreams.
Social Dreaming is a way of activating what’s going on in the unconscious and bringing to the fore thought processes. Similarly, these drawings emerged from Juliet’s unconscious.
As part of the programme of work with the Institute’s archive, we ran a series of Social Dreaming matrices in the Wellcome Collection Reading Room. The first of these took place the day after the UK voted to leave the European Union and was attended by over 40 people.
The catalyst for the drawings was a dream. In this dream, matrix dreams had been bottled up but one had managed to escape its bottling. It was the project archivist’s dream and she encouraged Juliet to draw it. The rest of the drawings followed.
Since then Juliet has developed these drawings in other contexts, such as research with frontline NGO organisations as a way to bring the unconscious to the surface of the organisational experience.
Social Dreaming in a Pandemic
International Social Dreaming Matrices took place through the first global lockdown, May to July 2020, and as part of Deepening Creative Practice. These drawings bring together some of the recurring themes that emerged - cats on Zoom, female authority, Black Lives Matter, hurtling through time.
Social Dreaming as part of the Deepening Creative Practice with Organisations Programme
“The flesh is the elemental tissue that gives rise to the web of earthly life that comprises both the organic and the inorganic together”. Abram
