image via Andrew 2.0
In this collaboration with Greg Gagnon, Matt Boch, and other members of the Reasonable People's League, visitors are encouraged to participate in the transmission of a dream. In one room, a shrouded cube hangs from the ceiling: stepping inside the cube reveals a 25-minute videoloop of the "dream" to be communicated. Inside the shroud, the viewer's face is watched by an infrared camera while the dream occurs. In another room, the "dreamer" who elects to sit in a goop-filled sarcophagus dons video-goggles that show the face of the other viewer as s/he narrates the "dream" from inside the shrouded cube.
In both roles, a participant is asked to relinquish one form of agency in exchange for greater portion of the shared experience—you step under the shroud to see the video, but then face the difficult task of actively narrating someone else's dream; likewise, settling into the sarcophagus allows you to wear the videogoggles and experience a strange form of sensory deprivation (floating in xanthan gum is quite memorable), but what sensory input you do receive is entirely mediated by your counterpart under the shroud.