DREAM REALMS: MAPPING TIME & SPACE BEYOND REALITY

Abstract

Dreams inhabit liminal landscapes where time and place collapse, showing how perception can morph fluidly across moments and spaces. In distinguishable opposition to demiurgic waking perception, dreams collapse timelines, expand space, and bleed in a non-linear way. This thesis seeks to investigate how the phenomenon of time disruption (in particular) can inform the design of immersive interactive environments. The research set out to position relative and absolute understandings of space and how the flow of dream logic opens up a new understanding of a different reality. The research expands on Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics of Space, which links memory and imagination in spatial experience, as well as Juhani Pallasmaa's ideas around sensory architecture and embodied perception. Using qualitative methods as a mode of inquiry, the research was explorative and looked at how altered states, such as lucid dreaming or spatial disorientation, could be the catalyst for informing design of nonlinear and emotionally responsive environments. As a form of exploration, immersive design opens a space for individuals to surrender their will to a massively scalable product, allowing them to become co authors in a dream-like immersion of space.