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While playing around with AI, I found how unsettling the faces of people were. This is a good example of uncanny imagery. The distance between the facial features are really off.

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The Chapman brother's drawings were made with the game 'exquisite corpse' which was a traditional surrealist game that involves a piece of paper folded into sections and each person draws parts of the body for the character without seeing what the previous person drew. This was an attempt to unlock the subconscious part of the mind, by creating something bizarre and random.

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Defining my Brief

This project will explore the concept of dreams and their importance in surrealism. I will use this project to respond to my research done for CTS, expanding and applying what I have learned to create something disturbing using surrealist and psychological theories. For this project, I will delve deeper into dreams and nightmares and the symbolism within them. To achieve this, I must experiment and research ways in which dreams are represented and the theories surrounding them.

A graphic narrative will be used to share my ideas, something that others can relate to and understand. Dreams and the subconscious are universal experiences and I can use my personal experiences as well as others to create a narrative.

The outcome will consist of a horror-inspired graphic narrative, that explores recurring dreams and our unspoken fears and desires.

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I was thinking about how I would display the dream journal, and was unsure if I would use a pre-made sketchbook or make my own. I want the journal to look like a prop and I was unsure about whether I would be able to achieve this, but I wanted to attempt it. Because the journal will only be 14 pages also, it would be best made by me so it would have the correct number of pages.

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AI art can create quite bizarre and dreamlike imagery, and while the art cannot be subconscious as the AI itself is not conscious it still does have a very uncanny feeling to it.

I used an AI text to image generator and used the prompt 'nightmare'. These images definitely have a surreal atmosphere and mimic the idea of the subconscious although this might be because it is a new technology and as it develops it will probably have a more 'polished look'. Because it is made by AI it has an uncanny feeling. The first image depicts what looks like a woman but anatomically it is very off and does not look like something a person would create. You can tell they are made by AI because of these things that just seem 'off' that the AI does not understand.

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Jan Švankmajer

"If, as Freud tells us, the purpose of dreams is to fulfil our secret or manifest desires, then surely somewhere deep inside us that most basic of human desires must constantly be being fulfilled: to survive one's own life."

Svankmajer is a surrealist artist whose work I am focusing on in my dissertation. A lot of his own work is inspired by his dreams, and these themes are clear in his films. Alice, 1988 for example is an adaptation of Alice in wonderland. He uses puppet stopmotion animation to depict the different characters from the story. The rabbit for example, is a puppet with huge bulging eyes and teeth. Throughout the film it has sawdust leaking out of a cut in its chest, and it has to eat more throughout the film. He also uses very limited dialogue in the film. This adds to the unsettling nature. Everything is seen through Alice's eyes as she narrates what is happening.

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These are character drawings of the parents. I represented them as anthropomorphic wolves, as the juxtaposition between the characters is something that would come up in a dream. The wolves also represent the metaphor as the animals will be used to tell this.

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For some time, it was believed that nightmares were caused by monsters. In folklore, a creature named 'The Mare' sits on someones chest as the sleep resembles what we know now as sleep paralysis. This is shown in Henry Fuseli's painting 'The Nightmare' and also many more.

Dreams also have many speculated meanings, with different animals and plants all believed to hold both positive and negative meaning.

Freud believed that 'The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to the unconscious'. He speculated that dreams are a form of 'wish fulfilment', representing desires of the unconscious. He believed that the symbols in dreams proposed what the conscious mind desired.

Surrealists aimed to capture the subconscious mind, resulting in bizarre images. Many used a technique called automatic drawing, where they would draw without thinking and supposedly drawing from the subconscious.

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I have found an interest in reoccurring dreams through my research into dreams. The idea of a story being told through these dreams or a meaning being found is something that I want to explore. A story told through a dream journal could be an interesting way to explore this. I could present it as an authentic dream journal and have a story being told throughout the recurring dreams. I will be looking into nightmares, as I have many reoccurring nightmares and when speaking to friends about their reoccurring dreams, they often told me about nightmares too.

My research for my thesis consisted of looking into what makes surrealist animated horror films unsettling, and through that research, I think I have a clear understanding of what makes them have an uncomfortable reaction. I will use this knowledge when making the dream journal, I will use uncanny imagery to make it scary.

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For the cover, I bought a textured piece of paper and stuck it to a piece of card so it would be thicker. I painted the cover a dark brown.

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Beksinski was an artist who was surrounded by lots of suffering, and his work mirrors that. His paintings depict surreal, dystopian imagery

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I will be using the saddle stitch as there will be a small amount of pages (about 14). I will design the journal to look authentic, I want it to look as though it is someones real journal.

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These are my sketches for the journal, the drawings are adaptations of what the narrator remembers from her dreams, they will be accompanied by text explaining what they saw.

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I decided to on using a mixture of mediums, charcoal being the main one as it gives a sketchy effect. It also helps give the zine a creepy atmosphere. I will use mostly greyscale, but will use red occasionally to exaggerate certain parts of the zine.

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There will be a story being told throughout the journal. I want a metaphor depicted behind the dreams, as many dreams are believed to have personal meanings. I wanted to tell a story of a child coming to the realisation that their parents are very flawed, while also accepting that no one is perfect and neither are their parents.

I thought about a story being told through animals, as animals are common symbols in dreams. However many of these meanings could be the opposite depending on the scene the animal is shown in. A wolf in a dream, for example, could mean A wolf in a dream could be 'your subconscious trying to bring your attention to something you haven't explored yet or understood in your waking life.' or it could mean 'The wolf itself may represent assistance from others in overcoming a challenge you're facing in everyday life. The wolf dream is a common symbol for aspects of oneself. This includes connection and having a “pack” of friends to depend on, which can be either joyful or terrible.'.

I will use animals as a metaphor, using wolves and rabbits in the zine. The wolves are the family and the rabbit is a victim of their nature. The narrator realises that her parents have been killing rabbits and are now scared of them, but the parents only tried to provide for them and acted on their instincts.

The journal will consist of dream journal entries with both text and drawings of each dream. The dreams will also be a recurring dream, where the story will be told through and developing through each dream.

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I played this game with some friends, to experiment with surrealist techniques and see how strange the characters could get. After revealing the drawings I drew the characters with more detail and with colour. I could potentially use these characters as monsters in my work as they all come out quite disturbing

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I spoke to different people about their reoccurring dreams and nightmares and thought about how these could be turned into imagery and understand the meaning behind them. Many of the people I spoke to identified the reasons of why they have these nightmares; many of them being guilt, shame and fear. It was really interesting to hear the diverse and weird range of dreams they had, with some of them being completely random and some having clear meaning behind it.

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From this weeks crit I presented my work to the group and received feedback. The image above shows some of the feedback I had received. This session helped me to understand that my outcome would have to be contextualised and backed up by theories. This was helpful as I also got to understand others experience with recurring dreams.

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His drawings have a great disturbing effect, I like the use of twisted, surreal figures and his use of materials. The mediums used defiantly add to the disturbing effect, the dark colours and sketchy lines make this more effective.

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I have been attempting to draw my dreams as soon as I wake up. This has been a challenge and because I have been struggling to make a cohesive drawing I have tried digitally collaging my dreams. This helped me to understand my dreams further, as the more successful the imagery was the more I started to remember them more clearly.

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These are some drawings I did of my own and others recurring dreams. I tried to illustrate the incohesive nature of these fears as in dreams usually there is something that just seems 'off'.

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The term 'The uncanny' was first used by psychiatrist Ernst Jentsch who describes the uncanny 'unheimlich' as something new or unknown that can often be seen as negative. Freuds take on this was that it was something that feels familiar but also alien at the same time. The uncanny is used in many artworks and animations or films to create an unsettling feeling.

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Meret Oppenheim created this surreal sculpture after having a conversation with Pablo Picasso. This sculpture plays with the senses, and you could imagine the strange effect this object could have on you if used. It combines two well understood objects using juxtaposition.

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The uncanny is often used to describe bizarre images of humanoid figures that look slightly off. The images always look as though they could almost pass as human but not quite. These images provoke a sense of uneasiness and is a common feeling people feel when they see human-like robots.

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In reflection, I like my outcome but I would have liked to do many things differently. I think that the medium I used is effective in creating an eerie atmosphere, and some of the drawings feel very unsettling. I tried to use the idea of making some of the faces look uncanny by drawing the facial features slightly off. Since in nightmares a lot of it can feel uncanny.

I think that the story could have been more developed, since it was a dream journal it could have been more descriptive. The text could have also been more developed. Some of the pages do not work compositionally and look too sketchy. Although this could help make it more effective, as my goal was to make an 'authentic' dream journal. Which in reality would be very sketchy and messy.

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For the drawings I used a combination of charcoal, chalk, ink and paint markers to create the sketchy effect. As the zine goes on I did want the style to slightly change as dreams can be so random and uncoordinated.

I scanned the drawings and digitally added the text to test compositionally where the writing should be, I also tried different ways to write.

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This is a sketch of one of the dreams. To give it a surreal feel, I removed certain elements that would usually be in a scene like this. For example the table legs and the legs of the characters, this reflects how in dreams details like this are often missing, as you usually only remember the symbols.

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One of the dreams will include the transforming of a persons face into a wolf. I think that a good way to see how it can change would be through tracing paper, with the layers showing through each page, showing the process of the transformation.

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My attempt at a short journal entry. I will combine text with sketches of the dreams.

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Automating writing was a technique used by surrealists where you write the first thing that comes into your mind without editing. They believed that this helped to create writing that came from the unconscious mind.

I attempted to write a story using this technique, just writing the first thing that came to my head as a dream would. This was a good exercise to generate ideas.

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I tired different mediums for the journal, for this one I used Posca pens. I do not think that this medium works as well as charcoal does, it does not have the same eerie effect.

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More tests with paint pens.

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Trying out composition for the spreads.

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The written story.

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In this project, I will explore the concept of dreams, their creative potential and their importance in surrealism. I will use this project to respond to my research done for CTS, expanding and applying what I have learned to create my outcome. I want to delve into disturbing narratives using surrealist and psychological theories, exploring dreams and nightmares and the symbolism within them. To achieve this, I must experiment and research ways in which dreams are represented and the theories surrounding them.

A graphic narrative will be used to share my ideas, something that others can relate to and understand. Dreams and the subconscious are universal experiences and can be used as a tool to relate and affect my audience. I can use my personal experiences as well as others to build this narrative.

The outcome I propose will consist of a horror-inspired graphic narrative, that explores recurring dreams and our unspoken fears and desires.

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The Wolf House is a stop-motion film about a young woman taking refuge in an abandoned house, where she is being hunted by a 'wolf'. Her nightmares start to come to life in this house as she is followed by figures coming out of the walls, creatures morphing into bizarre shapes. The film is a metaphor for the trauma a Chilean girl faced when escaping German colonies.

The GIF here shows the pigs that she sees throughout the film. These pigs turn into strange anthropomorphic creatures with a blend of pig and human characteristics; this is a good example of the uncanny, these pigs go from something that we can all recognise to something that slowly becomes more and more bizarre and unsettling.