In the Sheets- New Project!

In the Sheets is a project inspired by my personal dream diary.  I have suffered from insomnia for a number of years, when I do finally sleep, I have very strange dreams. Because these dreams were so strange, a friend who is also a poet suggested I write them down. From this, I decided to base my project on these dreams. The dreams range from fun, to strange to interesting to very dark. I was also heavily inspired by Sam Winston’s ‘Solace’ piece.

The text is hand-cut and scanned in to give the effect of depth and to allow them to flow in a wave form, to present the brain waves we have when we sleep. The material is very thin tracing paper, which allows the text to be seen through on either side to represent the lucid dreams.

I decided to create 5 short stories, as there are 5 stages of sleep. The typeface has 5 different weights, all of which change depending on the sleep stage. Each story explains the stage of sleep and also picks out particular words. These words are given a dictionary definition. The words are explored to see what it means to dream about ‘swimming’ for example. 

At the end of the story is a separate page of my scanned personal dream diary to add an element of reality to these unusual dreams.

ISTD | White Noise | 4′33″

For the ISTD awards this year I chose the brief 4′33″ (4 Minutes 33 Seconds) composed by John Cage.  4′33″ is an inspiring three-movement composition. The piece is a silent piece, which consists of three movements. The idea was that although the piece was silent, you can in fact never be silent; no matter how hard we try. We are always breathing, moving and there is always background noise. The piece purports to consist of the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed, although it is commonly perceived as "four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence"


I saw huge potential in this brief which is exactly why I chose it. 

Research showed me that white noise can be a very uncomfortable and eerie sound, which can also involve ghostly sounds and voices. This is exactly the reason why I chose it to include in my work. The idea behind my piece is that you read the distorted text whilst listening to the white noise. 

The piece has an extract of Don Delillo’s ‘White Noise’. The extract is of a man talking about great men who have died and how they probably did not fear death. The man and his wife then go on to argue about who should die first because they love each other so much neither of them could live without one another.

When listening to the 4 Minutes 33 Seconds whilst reading the distorted text, your mind is open to interpretation of you what you hear and read. Therefore, when each individual reads and listens, each experience will be different and unique.

All this type was produced using my typewriter featured here.