About this project
SleepWalks: The Body of Dreams
$2,149
28
Hi Kittens!
Guess what! We are a Project That Kickstarter Loves!
Hundreds, perhaps thousands of new potential friends and participants are looking us over.
WELCOME!
We met our initial funding request. However, you can still help us make SleepWalks: The Body Of Dreams even more spectacular. And I mean SPECTACLE-acular! We are hoping to raise money to help us pay a lighting designer and a costume designer. We can also use money for props. And naturally, though we don't mean to be selfish, it will be lovely if we have money to pay our art director/video artist/sound designer/fearless leader, Andrea for the incredible amount of time and effort she is putting in.
So, new friends and old, I hope that you will take a moment to learn about our project:
SleepWalks: The Body of Dreams is a multi-media dance performance based on the collaborative dreams of our SleepWalks participants with Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, video environments by me, sound by me and Lee Pembleton, and EEG tech by Todd Anderson.
Please give what you can to our three-part project. There will also be more videos and ideas about DREAMS (Why Do We Dream?) uploaded so please Stay Tuned! And if you are in the NY area, please come out to our events this September and October!
Thank you,
Andrea Williams
Director of SleepWalks: The Body of Dreams
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SleepWalks: The Body of Dreams includes:
1) Two SleepWalks overnight improvisational soundscape performances for the public by sound artists, Andrea Williams and Lee Pembleton (with EEG wireless headbands provided by scientist Todd Anderson) on September 2nd and September 9th, 2016 at the Chapel + Cultural Center in Troy, NY. These events are free for the public with RSVP. Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company dancers will be participants of the September 9th SleepWalks.
2) A SleepWalks art exhibit of ephemera from the SleepWalks overnights from September 17th to October 28th at the Chapel + Cultural Center in Troy, NY.
3) SleepWalks: The Body of Dreams, a multi-media dance performance by Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company with video environments by Andrea Williams, and sound by Andrea Williams and Lee Pembleton, based on the descriptions of the collaborative dreams (or strong themes that emerge) of the participants of the SleepWalks overnights. Performances will be take place on October 21st and 22nd, 8-9pm, $10, at the Chapel + Cultural Center in Troy, NY.
What Are Collaborative Dreams?
We consider them to be dreams where people see each other in the dreams, and sometimes they are meeting the same theme or goal. Sometimes during SleepWalks, participants have collaborative dreams.
What are SleepWalks?
Sound artists, Andrea Williams and Lee Pembleton, have been creating SleepWalks overnight improvised soundscape performances since 2009. The first overnight performance was at Mills College in Oakland, CA, and it was part of Ione's Annual Dream Festival.
A quote from SleepWalks Participants' Journal in 2009: "In my dreams, I was always in this place. The qualities (shape, size, architecture) of this room changed drastically, but somehow it was always here: “The Ensemble Room.” Same carpet all night, and the courtyard, and hallways upstairs. There were different people in my dreams, but [they] always started with a performance (happening or going to happen.) The people in my dreams last night were always cooperating toward some end (usually the performance?). Halloween was coming."
Pembleton and Williams use field recordings to improvise an eight-hour musical composition for an audience that sleeps in the performance space. Participants are encouraged to then journal their dreams in the morning. SleepWalks endeavors to discover the influence of sound on dream worlds. Participants are provided water and snacks and also a light breakfast and coffee/tea. They bring their own bedding, pillow, toiletries, comfortable clothes for sleeping in. Spots are limited for these collective dreaming events.
Since 2012, scientist Todd Anderson has been working with SleepWalks. During SleepWalks, some participants volunteer to wear wireless EEG headbands by Todd Anderson that measure their stages of sleep, including R.E.M., in real-time. Also, the performers record the sound samples that they use. Later, by reading the timestamps, Pembleton, Williams, and Anderson mark possible correlations between the sounds in the improvisation, the EEG readings, and the writings from the participants' dream journals. The goal of this long-term project is to provide an engaging experience for collective dreaming and to compose soundwalks for dreamers.
SleepWalks has been performed at numerous venues including Issue Project Room, NYC; Intersection for the Arts, SF; Diapason Gallery, NYC; Parsons Hall Gallery, MA; and Mills College, Oakland, CA.
SleepWalks does not use spoken word as part of their guided dreaming. They do not use hypnosis, subliminal, nor subconscious verbal manipulation. Rather, they create an audio travelogue of abstract soundscapes; suggestions of environments.
More examples of SleepWalks journal writing: www.sleepwalks.org
We Need your Support!
We have kindly received a small Community Arts Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) via the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, NY for SleepWalks: The Body of Dreams. This grant covers paying the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, the rental space of the Chapel + Cultural Center, and a scrim for video projection...
We are still needing funds for:
1) Reimbursing the cost of flights to NY
for artist Lee Pembleton (Chicago) = $400
and Scientist Todd Anderson (San Diego) = $400
2) Materials (frames, hooks) for SleepWalks Art Exhibit display = $150
3) Food/Supplies for 2 SleepWalks overnights, Art Exhibit Opening, and 2 SleepWalks: The Body of Dreams events = $750
4) Kickstarter fees = $200
5) Shipping Kickstarter gifts fees = $100
GRAND TOTAL = $2000
Risks and challenges
We are fully dedicated to carry out SleepWalks: The Body of Dreams with the grant money that we received for Fall 2016, but we would like to also be able to provide the above for our artists and for our audience members. Also our grant depends on us raising part of our funds ourselves from our community. That is why we need your support! :)
Please look over the Kickstarter gifts that we have to offer, and please give what you can!
Thank you!
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Funding period
- (28 days)