Dream-e-scape at the Film Criticism Conference, Riyadh, KSA

Film Criticism Conference - "Beyond the Frame" - Nov 8-15, 2023 - The Cultural Palace, DQ, Riyadh, KSA

Artist Talk: From Moving Images to Immersive Cinema - November 10, 2023 - 7:30pm - The Cultural Palace, DQ, Riyadh, KSA

Conceived and Directed by Laia Cabrera & Isabelle Duverger
Interactive Design by Aniol Saurina Masó and Jianhao Ma
Original music composition by Nana Simopoulos
Cinematography and Editing by Laia Cabrera & Isabelle Duverger

"Dream-e-scape" is an interactive projection art installation about lucid dreams, created by filmmaker Laia Cabrera and multimedia artist Isabelle Duverger, in collaboration with interactive designer Aniol Saurina Masó and Jianhao Ma, and composer and instrumentalist Nana Simopoulos.

The piece is an immersive and interactive 360º installation about the mind and the search for awareness in which the public experiences a sensory voyage that captures the surreal nature of dreams, where the line is blurred between the physical and the digital world, between the real and the imaginary.

“Dream-e-scape” is based on the state of sleep, an imaginary journey one can experience with the eyes wide open. The piece explores the concept of lucid dreaming, the sleep state in which we become aware we are dreaming and have the ability to control the dream and gain agency over our thoughts and desires. We are testing reality: Are we awake?

We wanted to play with the surreal nature of dreams and explore concepts and ideas related to our notion of a digital self in a collective environment. Being awake, conscious… agency. The installation uses the language of escape rooms to explore the dreamworld, opening doors to mirrored landscapes, waterfalls, a Daliesque world or hidden pathways, creating connection between allegories of tales, micro and macro, nature, body, mind and universe, all connected by chance and sometimes astonishing clarity. Dreams are the starting point of the imagination. The original score takes you to interactive soundscapes created specifically for the piece.

Using cutting-edge multimedia technology to produce creative environments, through mapping, infinite space, augmented reality, interactivity, video art, music and animation, the audience is invited to actively participate as actors and not just as mere spectators. The video installation art becomes a theatrical stage where things appear, move across, and then disappear, where awareness becomes attention and action, and your brain fantasizes your conscious reality. Original music uses textures, pads, pulses and drum rhythms to move the audience through the space and at times influence the music by their physical movement.

Conceived as a seamless projection mapping design with full gesture responsive interactivity, “Dream-e-escape” invites the audience to actively enter the heart of the piece creating and choosing dreamlands that unfold across a series of immersive interactive scenarios, capturing the surreal nature of dreams and giving the audience agency. Dream-e-scape plays as a fictional dimension, whose terrain of forests, cities, galaxies, mountains, and an underworld can be visited only through a process of thinking creatively, Lucid dreaming.








OTHER VENUES
Flutter Art Gallery - 2022-2023 - Los Angeles
Microwave Media Arts Festival - Oct 28, 2022 - Nov 6, 2022 - Hong Kong City Hall

AWARDS: #Hybrid Vision - Panasonic Digital Art Competition 2022 - Interactive Digital Art Nominee