DREAMING
SESSIONS

In the times when physical distance is non-negotiable, can we get closer by intertwining our dreams? Can we travel in our sleep to places we are missing? Can we extend our perspectives by using a space of the dream to embody another person, a member of a different species or a plant?

DREAMING SESSIONS is a project run by Maja Renn within the framework of a collaborative LAB of the Schauspielhaus Zürich and the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste. During four weekly online group sessions participants learn techniques for more conscious dreaming and experiment with finding new ways of connecting through their dreams.

Below you can find the example of one task for each of the sessions:

Session 1: Dreamsigns.
Write or draw five motifs that recur in your dreams. It can be a place, an object, a creature. I.e.: #elevator #stairs #lake #hair #animal. The moderator makes a map of all the motifs.

Homework: Dreamwriting. Each morning, right after waking up, write down as much as you can remember of your dream(s). If you can not formulate any narrative write down the motif, or a feeling after waking up.

Session 2: Intertwining.
One person tells their dream. If you hear a motif you remember from your own dream,
raise their hand and continue the narrative.

Homework: Reality check (question). Draw the agreed symbol (i.e. a moon) on your arm or a paper you carry in your pocket. Until next session, every time you accidentally look at the symbol ask yourself: “Am I dreaming now?”.

Session 3: Reality check (action).
Find a light switch, try to turn the light on / off. If you are dreaming, nothing will happen. Find a clock, check the time, look away, check the time again. If you are dreaming, the time will be different.

Find a book, open it and check page number, close the book, try to find the same page. If you are dreaming, finding the same page will be impossible.

Homework: Integrate the reality check in your daily life.

Session 4: Intention.
Participants tell their dreams one by one. Choose a motif from the another person’s
dream and describe the way they you imagine you would dream about it.

Homework: Set the intention of dreaming the narrative you imagined each night before falling asleep.

the night is over,

but the dream isn't

nico vascellari via coda lunga

Its original French name is Trèfle which means "clover" and the card symbol depicts a three-leafed clover leaf. The Italian name is Fiori ("flower"). The English name "Clubs" is derived from the suit of Bastoni (batons) in Italian-Spanish suited cards

A suitcase is a form of luggage. It is often a somewhat flat, rectangular-shaped bag with rounded square corners. Vinyl, leather or cloth suitcases may have a metal frame. Hardshell suitcases open on hinges like a door.

Go visit the Prairies in June, when for scores on scores of miles you wade knee-deep among Tiger- lilies - what is the one charm wanting? - #Water - there is not a drop of water there! Were Niagara but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to see it?

Loomings, Chapter One

"Once upon a time, I, Zhuangzi, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhuangzi. Soon I awakened, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. Between a man and a butterfly there is necessarily a distinction. The transition is called the transformation of material things."

— Chuang-tzu