Digital Dreams (Student Curated)

Digital Dreams aims to articulate the relationship between the human experience and technology through the exploration of the subconscious. The duality of our experiences becomes tangible in the works of these artists, who use various mediums to describe the very human experience of dreaming or to explain things that simply cannot be put into words.

The artists explore the subconscious through a wide variety of mediums, from digital video to experimental blown glass, in hopes to describe the indescribable. The results are surreal and visceral pieces built on the emotions and subconscious thoughts of each artist.

With the rapid changes of our modern era, we might wonder what impact our digital experiences create on our subconscious. Much like technology, dreams can be fleeting, leaving only vague emotions when they are gone. Oftentimes, these emotions are difficult to process. Artists examine these experiences and try to make sense of their dreamworld by using technology as a way to understand these fleeting moments.

The process of creating art mimics the process of understanding one’s own emotional and subconscious being. These artists use technology as a crucial element of this process as it is not only a medium for their art, but a means for translating their experiences into tangible realities. Some artists use photography to create surreal portraits of the human mind that draw attention to the subjectivity of our experiences. Others utilize media formats that explore our subconscious emotions through visual and audio depictions of dreamlike states.

Featured Artists

Digital Dreams was curated by nine Emerson College undergraduate students in conjunction with a Visual Media Arts course “Curating Contemporary Art.” The process was guided by Dr. Leonie Bradbury—Emerson’s Foster Chair of Art Theory and Practice and Distinguished Curator-in-Residence. Students were responsible for all aspects of the exhibitions including: exhibit design, building a website, loan agreements, the object checklist, educational materials, social media assets, and press materials.

The Backrooms Guild, Noor Chadha, Jaina Cipriano, Dalma Foldesi, Stephanie Hubbard, Jung In Seo, Mathew Lapaglia, Wa Liu, Lindsy Marshall, Rebecca Nagle, Lily Oliver, Christopher Rohrig, Ticha Sethapakdi, Kevin Williamson, and Luke Whittaker.