66th Annual Conference

Saturday, February 21

Early Bird Open Sessions

7:45-8:45 A.M.

Session 216

The Social Dreaming Project: Artists as Visionaries

Presenter: 

Carol Lark, Ph.D., ATR-BC, CGP, Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, St. Louis, Illinois

Social dreaming is a highly evocative process, stimulating vivid mental imagery that holds potential for both personal and collective meaning-making. As a group process, it challenges participants to relinquish personal ownership of dream material in order to analyze the social unconscious of the group, which is usually done verbally. Artists, skillful in the use of imagery in non-verbal ways, were asked to create an art-based version of social dreaming. This presentation will trace the development and outcomes of this experiment.

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:

1. Describe applications of non-verbal and verbal processes in the evolving art-based social dreaming group.

2  Discuss the inherent challenges of bridging the personal and the collective in social dreaming.

3. Identify specific social dreaming skills that emerge in the learning curve of an on-going social dreaming group.

Course References:

1. Lacy, S. (1995). Debated territory: Toward a critical language for public art. In S. Lacy, Ed. Mapping the terrain: New Genre public art. Seattle: Bay Press.

2. Lawrence, G. W. (2005). Introduction to Social Dreaming. London: Karnac Books.

3 .Ross, S. L. (2003). The science, spirit, chaos, and order of social dreaming. In G. W. Lawrence, Ed. Experiences in social dreaming. London: Karnac Books.

4. Walker, E. M. (2003). The confusion of dreams between selves and the other: Non-linear continuities in the social dreaming experience. In G. W. Lawrence, Ed. Experiences in social dreaming. London: Karnac Books.