Digital Arts & Culture
Paul Amitai (inst.)
04.11.2005
"Dream Space”

Project Objectives:
The objective of this project was to create a photo collage that depicts a dream you have had.

Project Description:
We had to choose a vivid dream that had images that stood out in our memory and create our composition from this.  We were only allowed to use images that we either photographed ourselves or illustrated by hand or in Photoshop.  The composition would be 24 inches wide by 10 inches high and would be printed on three separate sheets and then pasted together.

Description of Solution:
The dream I chose to depict was about the city of Milwaukee under attack.  During the beginning of the war in Iraq I was living in the dorms at MSOE and my room overlooked downtown.  The TV had images every night of cities in Iraq being bombed and on fire.  These images stuck in my head and I would have dreams that I would wake up in the middle of the night and see the city of Milwaukee in flames with bombs exploding everywhere.  These dreams were very dark and evil so I tried to get that feeling across in my piece.  I set the composition at night, with virtually no light on the city.  The only illumination of the city is from the explosions.  I didn’t want there to be any one focus point on this composition so I spread out the explosions.  I did however want the attention to be drawn more towards the skyline so I placed bomb craters in the foreground that lead the eye towards the first explosion.  The missile coming into the picture also brings the eye towards the skyline.  The colors of the sky behind the explosion are intended to give both more emphasis on the explosion itself as well as add to the mood of the piece.  The explosions added necessary contrast in color to the piece while adding to the narrative.  I think this piece really draws the viewer into my dream and makes you feel like you are witnessing this yourself.