The amorphous machine, ever shifting, mechanical, simultaneously beautiful and terror inducing, it invokes the full range of human emotion and experience. It entrances the public and captures the hearts and mind’s of people from the most influential politicians and innovators to the dreamers and artists.
The dream machine takes many forms but in general can be thought of as that which inspires - the paintings, architecture, film, games, poetry, music and the stories we tell.
It is The Dream Machine which shapes our collective future. It shifts our beliefs of what makes a good life, what a relationship should look like, it paints the ideal.
The dreams of one artist impose themselves on the world and latch on to our psyche, shifting the very fabric of the world we live in. It spreads like a parasite through the minds of all of those who encounter it. Puppeteering our decision making to increase the chance of the dream’s survival.
Not all of the dreams which inspire us are good for us, some of them are destructive, too idealistic, or tap into the fearful, power hungry or vulnerable parts of ourselves.
The dream machine has caused extreme violence, it’s led to the invention of modern medicine, agriculture, religions, the meta-verse and it’s landed people on the moon.
Charlatans and faceless organisation try to tame The Dream Machine, they inject their toxic sludge into it to deceive us. From Hollywood incepting us into believing that we should buy our partner’s diamond rings to Coca Cola rebranding Christmas into their colour scheme. Large corporations co-opt our holidays into collective worship of consumerism and conglomerates like Disney form and eat up all the smaller studios.
What happens when all of the media we consume is being orchestrated by a small number of individuals that are driven by profit or even their own twisted ideologies?
We’ve witnessed a mass de-risking across the board in media - sequel after sequel, re-launch after re-launch, formulaic productions, an infinite supply of garbage just entertaining enough to keep us entranced and complacent.
I dream of something more, with rougher edges, surprising, confusing and sometimes downright horrible. This is the promise of independent publishing, this is the best of what we have to offer. They give us diversity, all it takes is for one person to have a dream and it can inspire the world.
To me the dream machine is something to be cared for and protected, it is our collective subconscious and we can not sell it to the highest bidder, we must preserve our ability to shape and inspire our collective futures. We must continue to invent deep and powerful futures that are worth living in rather than shallow dystopian hell holes.
