Ideas For The Future of Medium: Dream Archives
Sexblooddreams. Documentary of a dream. By artist Corinna Tomrley, 1996. From her YouTube channel.
I have a suggestion for Ev Williams and the entire team at Medium: to develop the next phase of Medium by creating a video space devoted to people’s unconscious minds.
I’m interested in what Medium will become in the future. I’ve also been interested in the possibility of recording the human subconscious and dreams for as long as I can remember. Ten years ago I thought we would find a way to record our dreams so in the morning, we could watch our dreamworld and get more insight into our minds. I’ve solved many big problems while my brain was asleep at night. Our brains sometimes do their best work when we are not consciously thinking. But if we don’t have access to this knowledge, then it’s not useful for the improvement of life. I feel that I still miss many important dream stories due to forgetfulness. I want full access to my unconscious stories.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Facebook recently and my distaste for it. I like that it is a memory storage place for my photos and I can access anyone at any time, but overall, I’m getting bored with the format. I’ve weaned myself off it and check it once a day now instead of my previous 25+. I’m interested in something bigger, something more meaningful as far as a social network goes and I’m getting more of what I desire on Medium.
Facebook is a place where my relatives haunt, and where people make judgements and don’t seem to be interested in tackling actual truths. It has become a superficial place. It’s boring except for fueling one of my obsessions which I don’t yet have the guts to explore.
I can tell the truth on Medium and my relatives aren’t on it yet. Medium is in its early stage. It’s revolutionized quality content and I think it’s leading the way in terms of thought-provoking stories and integrity-rich journalism. I’m very excited about it. I’m grateful too because I feel I finally have a place where I can just simply tell the truth, no matter how absurd, grotesque, beautiful or disturbing my truth is. It’s a place where my authentic self can flourish. And best of all, I don’t have to try and maneuver past any gatekeepers to get my shit out. I hate asking for permission.
So, how would a Dream Archive work on Medium?
There would be different categories for different kinds of dreams. It could be a melting pot of the human mind and quite valuable for understanding how our unconscious selves operate at night. Until we figure out a better way of recording our dreams at night, we will have to rely on creating videos and recreating the events the next day. People who sleepwalk could record their experiences. I’m interested in sleepwalking and night hallucinations because I have a fair amount of sleepwalking and hallucinatory experiences (which I’m still trying to understand).
There could even be a section where people write in their dreams and then people who have more time to create videos, could re-create their dreams for them. Then, it would be possible to wake up, and see your own dream in movie-form the next day or days. Can you imagine how addictive that would become? I would definitely become an addict overnight if such a thing was available.
I don’t know why people would be willing to create videos of other people’s dreams. Maybe they would get paid for doing this? I suppose a lot of my ideas are based in utopia. The best dream interpreter video creators would be in high demand because you could view their dream archives.
A few years ago I tried out the dream archives idea in a cafe. There was one section where people could write out their dreams and another section where someone could draw the dream. It worked with my artist friends, but didn’t really catch on.
This dream interpreter video creator could be a business model for a Virtual Reality project. The main issue with all of this is accurate reporting of dream details. It’s very difficult to recall all the details of a dream the next day. We, as humans, would have to alter our normal sleep patterns and record the details right as they happen, at night. This would ensure proper accuracy but it would also create sleep disturbances.
I have other ideas for the future of Medium. It’s contained in my next post.
Leah Stephens writes under the pseudonym, Stellabelle. She just published her first book, Un-Crap Your Life.
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