Grant Synopsis (Night Journey)

by Christopher D. Di Ciocco

Susan Kae Grant’s “Night Journey” is a photo-based installation centered on her research, which explores her subconscious psyche. Her work stems from her interest in visually plumbing the depths of the place where we all go when we sleep. Stating her interest in how dreams look, rather than analyzing what they mean, she set out on a project that seems to bridge the gap between scientific research and artistic practice.

The images are literally shadows, which Grant projected onto a sweep and which she then photographed in the studio using imagery she has lifted from her own dreams. Her installation consists of 24 8x4 vertical images, which have been transferred from a dye-sublimation process to a sheer chiffon fabric. Grant’s use of the chiffon allows many images to be viewed simultaneously by layering them in front of and behind others, creating a labyrinth of dreams swaying with the viewer’s passage through the piece. This layering is meant to reproduce the dream-space she experiences while sleeping, thus providing for the viewer a physical journey into her subconscious activities. She also uses a layered voice-over soundtrack containing her own voice whispering and speaking symbolic phrases that bring up questions of what the dream images may mean.

Most of her dreams were mined for compelling imagery with a team of dream researchers headed by Dr. John Herman at the Southwestern Medical Center Sleep Laboratory at the University of Texas in Dallas. It was here that she was monitored during each sleep cycle and awakened at the end of the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) phase of sleep, which is the deepest sleep and where the dreams occur. After being awakened to a darkened room, the dream sequences were pieced together from her recollections. The dream technicians asked questions about what she saw in the dreams while Grant replied, tracing the dream sequence visually from end to beginning. The sessions were recorded, transcribed and compiled into a notebook, which she re-reads for visually interesting sequences. “Vivid recall of dreams dissipate as quickly as they appear, so the final images were re-fabricated from my memory and recollections of the original dreams,” says Grant.

Although her images were made with a camera in a traditional way, they take on a nature all together different from traditional photographs. In this case, the images in the installation project an alternate, familiar, yet otherworldly space upon the viewer as they are physically transported into the pure thought of Grant’s dreams. Her research and installation serve to bring up unanswerable questions about the human subconscious, the parallel between language, vision, memory and dreams while seemingly bridging the gap between empirical research and artistic practice.

Grant Analysis (Night Journey)

by Mark Slankard

Susan kae Grant’s “Night Journey” attempts to position the viewer as an active participant in a constructed dream world. In collaborating with dream researcher Dr. John Herman, Grant seeks to create an experiential environment based on her own accounts of her dreams from laboratory investigations. While Dr. Herman investigates the visual aspect of dreams, Grant says she is more interested in the experience of the dream state rather than in particular dream meanings. She ponders dreams relationship with time and their potential to mimic the past and predict the future.

One of the most intriguing parts of Grant’s account of the process by which dreams are recorded during a series of REM awakenings in a laboratory experiment, is unfortunately occluded from the final presentation. When she later listens to the recordings of her accounts of her dreams told in reverse from the most recent to earliest memories, she can recall neither the dreams nor her speaking of them. She claims that even her voice is unrecognizable to herself. This seems extremely relevant to her investigation into projection and memory in dreams. She has chosen instead to re-record and re-order the stories in chronological order. She whispers fragments of the stories and layers them as echoes in order to create the emotional experience of dreaming. This seemingly intuitive approach corresponds to our popular notions of dreaming as well as her intuitive approach toward creating the dreamlike shadows that she photographs. One must consider the role of art and science as well as interpretation and investigation in such collaborations.

When being awakened from her state of REM sleep, Grant recounts her feeling of lucid, hyper reality. Her work has long focused on mystery and questions that are effectively unanswerable. She understands and embraces different histories and experiences that viewers bring with them in their understanding of her work. She is more interested in the general emotional state of dreaming rather than any specific psychoanalytic reading of the contents of her dreams. However, because she is dealing with specific representations of highly codified images, such as birds, dead trees, males, females, and shadows it is difficult to wholly divorce the content from the associated psychoanalytic readings. These references to symbolic states of the unconscious are inextricably bound in the interpretation of dreams.

Grant is surprised by some of her findings, such as her preconception of dreams meaning and the details and textures of her experience. One must wonder what preconceived notions and misgivings we all experience. How might we construct the experience of our own dreams? Does the specificity of her recreations translate clearly into a generalized state of dreaming that she would have her audience experience?


	Night Journey Susan kae Grant Grant Synopsis (Night Journey) by Christopher D. Di Ciocco Susan Kae Grant’s “Night Journey” is a photo-based installation centered on her research, which explores her subconscious psyche. Her work stems from her interest in visually plumbing the depths of the place where we all go when we sleep. Stating her interest in how dreams look, rather than analyzing what they mean, she set out on a project that seems to bridge the gap between scientific research and artistic practice. The images are literally shadows, which Grant projected onto a sweep and which she then photographed in the studio using imagery she has lifted from her own dreams. Her installation consists of 24 8x4 vertical images, which have been transferred from a dye-sublimation process to a sheer chiffon fabric. Grant’s use of the chiffon allows many images to be viewed simultaneously by layering them in front of and behind others, creating a labyrinth of dreams swaying with the viewer’s passage through the piece. This layering is meant to reproduce the dream-space she experiences while sleeping, thus providing for the viewer a physical journey into her subconscious activities. She also uses a layered voice-over soundtrack containing her own voice whispering and speaking symbolic phrases that bring up questions of what the dream images may mean. Most of her dreams were mined for compelling imagery with a team of dream researchers headed by Dr. John Herman at the Southwestern Medical Center Sleep Laboratory at the University of Texas in Dallas. It was here that she was monitored during each sleep cycle and awakened at the end of the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) phase of sleep, which is the deepest sleep and where the dreams occur. After being awakened to a darkened room, the dream sequences were pieced together from her recollections. The dream technicians asked questions about what she saw in the dreams while Grant replied, tracing the dream sequence visually from end to beginning. The sessions were recorded, transcribed and compiled into a notebook, which she re-reads for visually interesting sequences. “Vivid recall of dreams dissipate as quickly as they appear, so the final images were re-fabricated from my memory and recollections of the original dreams,” says Grant. Although her images were made with a camera in a traditional way, they take on a nature all together different from traditional photographs. In this case, the images in the installation project an alternate, familiar, yet otherworldly space upon the viewer as they are physically transported into the pure thought of Grant’s dreams. Her research and installation serve to bring up unanswerable questions about the human subconscious, the parallel between language, vision, memory and dreams while seemingly bridging the gap between empirical research and artistic practice. Grant Analysis (Night Journey) by Mark Slankard Susan kae Grant’s “Night Journey” attempts to position the viewer as an active participant in a constructed dream world. In collaborating with dream researcher Dr. John Herman, Grant seeks to create an experiential environment based on her own accounts of her dreams from laboratory investigations. While Dr. Herman investigates the visual aspect of dreams, Grant says she is more interested in the experience of the dream state rather than in particular dream meanings. She ponders dreams relationship with time and their potential to mimic the past and predict the future. One of the most intriguing parts of Grant’s account of the process by which dreams are recorded during a series of REM awakenings in a laboratory experiment, is unfortunately occluded from the final presentation. When she later listens to the recordings of her accounts of her dreams told in reverse from the most recent to earliest memories, she can recall neither the dreams nor her speaking of them. She claims that even her voice is unrecognizable to herself. This seems extremely relevant to her investigation into projection and memory in dreams. She has chosen instead to re-record and re-order the stories in chronological order. She whispers fragments of the stories and layers them as echoes in order to create the emotional experience of dreaming. This seemingly intuitive approach corresponds to our popular notions of dreaming as well as her intuitive approach toward creating the dreamlike shadows that she photographs. One must consider the role of art and science as well as interpretation and investigation in such collaborations. When being awakened from her state of REM sleep, Grant recounts her feeling of lucid, hyper reality. Her work has long focused on mystery and questions that are effectively unanswerable. She understands and embraces different histories and experiences that viewers bring with them in their understanding of her work. She is more interested in the general emotional state of dreaming rather than any specific psychoanalytic reading of the contents of her dreams. However, because she is dealing with specific representations of highly codified images, such as birds, dead trees, males, females, and shadows it is difficult to wholly divorce the content from the associated psychoanalytic readings. These references to symbolic states of the unconscious are inextricably bound in the interpretation of dreams. Grant is surprised by some of her findings, such as her preconception of dreams meaning and the details and textures of her experience. One must wonder what preconceived notions and misgivings we all experience. How might we construct the experience of our own dreams? Does the specificity of her recreations translate clearly into a generalized state of dreaming that she would have her audience experience?