Daydreaming in Public

Daydreaming in Public is a short-film that has been a valuable opportunity for further developing our inquiry on the state of contemporary life. We feel that cities are spaces where individuals socially engage with each other at many levels, however, nowadays public spaces are highly oriented for business or as tourism attractions, subtracting a great deal of potential to other social interactions. Our interest is to deep into aspects that shape our understanding of coexistence, analyzing how art can register extra qualities to the public realm. How communal situations simply taken for granted can be expanded into new intriguing moments of socialization? How can passerby’s be reminded of the diversity and flux of a city?

This film merges photography, drawing, design and video from the building process of two daydreaming devices presented under Sofia Ponte’ working art concept Daydreaming in Public with Tiago Pereira’ unique VJ and filmmaking skills. This concept is applied through the display of daydreaming devices in public, which are designed for specific situations as convertible furniture, fulfilling unpractical and emotional needs, for example, such as contemplation.

There still is a misunderstanding about productivity and knowledge, which are two of the main values democratic societies are proud of having achieved. Who ever naps or sleeps during the day either is lazy, disturbing progress, or homeless. The public display of daydreaming devices create novelty to a social sphere ruled by heavy protocol and stereotype. Their design facilitates a transformative process of their user and the people around them by cultivating non-obvious interactions between personal and collective agency, and finally, demystifying implicit aspects of socialization.

As artists we are focus on exploring the contradictions of our “parsifalesc” society, where individuals feel a paralyzing lack of confidence in determining their purposes and responsibilities, in order to reflect on the role of art in reconciling and understanding the shift of the traditional paradigm in this new era. Daydreaming devices try to affect an understanding of the waking life sometimes strictly relegated to the obscurity of intimacy. We insist in developing these ideas into a dense leit motif for further developing our inquiry on the strategies that transform today's experience into knowledge and to learn more about them. We encourage a performative space for daydreaming so that examining our human condition brings about not only a self-discovery experience but also a relief towards the anxieties of our contemporaneity.


Sofia Ponte and Tiago Pereira, August 2009

Daydreaming in Public by Sofia Ponte & Tiago Pereira from TRACK Y on Vimeo.