This unit in our core class ’Who Am I’ we learned about doubt and dream. We talked about the meaning of dreams and how in many lines of work you have to deal with doubt especially when considering the risk involved. We learned about Freud and the surrealist art movement. We also picked up new psychology and surrealist vocabulary like the Id, ego and superego to better understand the way we dream and the way we think. We talked to a few people with some more experience on the matter. First we spoke to pastor Matt Fitzgerald who talked to us about doubt and how we can better interact with those around us. Then we spoke to Jason Bender a black belt in Jiu Jitsu who taught us to mitigate risk and doubt by learning to protect ourselves better in a corporeal sense. On the flip side of this we lastly talked to financial planner Andrew Lisi who explained how the best way to decrease doubt and risk is to diversify or spread out the risk. Lastly we wrapped up the unit by learning about the Ojibwe tribe. We visited the Art institute of Chicago to see the dream aspect of different cultures left behind through their artifacts. To bring all this together we built dreamcatchers to represent belief. We worked hard to make sure that are work was culturally appropriative and spoke about how every little part of the dreamcatcher is representative of something.
Colors: blue hoop with green spiral. Inner webbing is lighter blue.
Added designs: pink icosahedron (20 sided die) tightly wrapped in the middle.
Dark blue hoop represents sad times and the deep self-reflection that goes along with that sadness. The green around it signifies the growth that thought encouraged. I wish for the dreamcatcher to catch the intrusive, bad or ‘blue’ memories. My wish for these thoughts to be pushed back down could be thought of in Freudian terms as me trying to repress these things, and the anxiety caused by them.
The lighter blue webbing is essentially the flip side to those deep blue feelings. It’s light blue like the sky or light blue like the ocean. It represents exploration or adventure as well as happy bright feelings which I think of when I think of a clear blue sky or clean tranquil water. I tend to feel claustrophobic and wasteful when I spend longer periods indoors so the color of the sky and ocean have great ties to happy memories for me. Additionally the color could be thought of as regressive as they are chosen based on childhood memories. Freud might have believed I was choosing these colors because i’m stuck in the past, and in my childhood, in some way. These memories are the ones I want to be incorporated into my dream in some way. Back during our dream analysis we established that my dream of freezing time must have some meaning of not having enough time to do things I want. The light blue also is a part of me wanting more personal freedom in the world.
The 20 sided dice has a few meanings to me. First as it is a die it obviously represents the randomness and unpredictability of life, but the dice I chose has a pink color to it. This pink color represents a kind of hopefulness. I never know what exactly comes next but I can simply pursue a good outcome and hope for the best. The way the Die is fastened to the dream catcher is excessive and has a dramatic desperation to it. I associate it with the way I and lots of others look at the glass half full in every situation and hold on tightly to hope. It’s a visual metaphor in that way. The 20 sides of the die also have meaning. 20 is a strong and balanced number. It represents, to me, resolve. Since it’s on the dice I interpret it as having the resolve to keep going regardless of the outcome.
My dreamcatcher
I had a great time with this action project I learned a lot and had to be very careful about what I added to it. I had to make sure that everything had meaning to both me and to the original traditions of the Ojibwe culture. I enjoyed taking a deep dive into myself and projecting those things into a physical object. I also learned lot about Ojibwe tradition and how they consider 7 generations ahead when making decisions. Overall this was a great project since we were forced to be weary of traditions yet still put forth something from yourself that had great meaning.
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