The Old Times

Together in Electric Dreams

From course canvas: 01_ElectricDreams_01 – Miro

“We’ll always be together, Together in electric dreams” claimed Phil Oakley and Georgio Moroder in their song and in the context of Digital Media and the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) , it certainly seems that individual lives will become increasingly connected, even reliant, upon these 21st century tools – although it is fascinating to learn that has actually been around for a great deal longer than one might expect and the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ was coined as long ago as the 1950s.

But as demostrated by the following slide, it is the since the second decade of the 21st Century that AI as we understand it today began to take shape:

I learned of the exitance of Google – then known as a search engine – back in the late 1990s and was overjoyed to be invited to open a Gmail account which I continue to use to this day. Since then, Google has been a daily feature on my life and quite possibly my most used website. But, earlier this year, I head about ChatGPT and started to use it a bit for pictures, illustrations and information – sometimes even advice. I used it immediately before the start of this session to create an illustration for a post to Instagram about the movie ‘The Social Dilemma’:

This is about the extent of my AI knowledge and I have felt quite proud that my ability to detail the criteria for illustrations or information has given me (what I consider to be) quite nice results. At least, that is, until Matt Gwyver’s ‘Electric Dreams’ session began. Wow … just wow. I am so excited about the possibilities. And, more than a little daunted too.

First, here’s a summary taken from the project overview:
This project invites you to explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and creative digital media through the theme of dreams and dreaming. You will investigate how AI tools can be used to generate, manipulate, and interpret digital content, and reflect on the implications of machine creativity. The brief takes its name from the Philip K. Dick novel Electric Dreams.

I’d never heard of the book or TV series and wasn’t able to find either ahead of the class so I asked ‘ChatGPT’ to give me a ‘one pager’ to explain it to me, this is what AI told me:

A little light listening before the next session!

Next Steps

Over a sandwich and a cup of coffee, I looked again at the Miro slides and began to think about the project: Digital Media, AI and Dreams. Though I do occasionally dream, they are generally about day-to-day events, concerns, hopes and it is unusual for the memory of the dream to remain for more than a few minutes after waking – with one or two notable exceptions (please ask for more details 😘). As a Lay Minister currently preparing for a series of Harvest Festival services, it struck me that among there many stories in the Bible about dreams and dreaming – arguably the most famous of which has smashed box office sales around the world thanks to Andrew Lloyd-Webber – Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. That gave me an idea …

The Dream Cycle of Joseph – A Digital Media Pilgrimage

This project explores the theme of dreams in Genesis 37–50, focusing on Joseph’s dream journey rather than the more familiar story of the “coat of many colours.” Dreams are presented not only as biblical episodes but as metaphors for symbolism, subconscious logic, memory, and transformation.

The project is conceived as a digital pilgrimage, where audiences move through a series of creative “stations” inspired by Joseph’s dream encounters:

1. Opening Gateway – Introduction to the nature of dreams.
2. Joseph’s First Dreams – Symbolism and abstraction.
3. Prison Dreams – Interpreting uncertainty and confinement.
4. Pharaoh’s Dreams – Vision, future, and crisis.
5. Recognition – Dreams as catalysts for transformation.
6. Retrospective & Reflection – Dreams reinterpreted through lived experience.
7. Exit – Silence, stillness, and integration.

The project invites a modern audience – often with no regular connection to faith based stories – to consider the benefits of peace, reflection, and inner stillness. While rooted in Christian narrative, it draws also from mindfulness and contemplative traditions.

Potential media outputs include:

• Surreal visual works or animation to depict dream symbolism.
• Interactive narrative or speculative short story reimagining Joseph’s dreamscapes.
• Soundscapes or experimental audio pieces evoking subconscious states.
• Mixed media installations/digital collage combining biblical text with AI-generated visuals and sound.

The project proposes using a range of AI creative tools (for text generation, image synthesis, sound design, and interactivity) to shape a contemporary, immersive exploration of dreams that is both spiritual and accessible.

I’ve got a lot to learn to bring this idea to (virtual) life. Don’t think I can do it? Well, I do and as Jason Donovan once sang, ‘Any Dream Will Do’.