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4-minute read  Screenshot of Kanye's New Music Video "Eazy" Let's talk about the music video on Kanye West’s new song “Eazy” with The Game.
As I currently write this I see countless media headlines declaring how controversial it is that Kanye has done this, that or the other. They’ll say he's out of his place and shouldn't have made the video. They'll say that he should delete it because no civil society would ever allow something like this to be created. Despite these countless cries I'm here to say that this is nothing new. When we take a look at art across time we see that artists push boundaries by definition. You cannot be classified as creative unless you create something which hasn’t been done before. Although in some ways we may argue that something like that has already been done such as when Kathy Griffin held a model of Donald Trump’s severed head back in 2017. Now we see Kanye obviously drowning in what appears to be jealousy of Pete Davidson. Although it's hard to say whether he’s acting for publicity or not, it's important to remember that he is an artist by definition. Due to the way he’s currently feeling and/or presenting himself he creates this new Claymation motion picture where we see him riding through the desert to kidnap Pete Davidson, eventually burying him by the end of the music video. Obviously this piece is not pleasant at all as it holds an extremely grim and dark meaning alongside a drained destitute black and white color palette. When we look at art solely in the service of depicting beauty we find ourselves restricting the full range of the human experience. We cannot be constraining the mechanism which artists use to express and share their perspective. By definition if you are an American artist you have a freedom under law which protects your artwork to the very core. This is the foundational freedom of the artist. The American first amendment is the protection which artists and citizens all across the world wish they had under law. Artists shouldn’t have to worry about whether they're going to get arrested for something they’ve created unless there is genuine malice and/or illegal activity involved. Artists by definition push the visual frontier as well as the boundaries of the culture which it inhabits. I don't believe it's our place to censor them just because we don't believe or support their perspective. I don't believe we should be censoring our artists just because their creation goes against any societies traditional cultural norms. We should allow them to create. However, if you believe the work to be offensive then you may use your own voice and freedom of expression to share your thoughts on that piece. Criticism and censorship are two profoundly different and distinct things. After receiving immense criticism and pressure Kanye either decided or was force to clarify as he stated: “Art is therapy just like this view art is protected as freedom of speech art inspires and simplifies the world Art is not a proxy for any ill or harm. Any suggestion otherwise about my art is false and mal intended” If art shocks or mesmerizes you then that proves both its power and effectiveness. First you may ask yourself why it shocks you and why you’re offended. If you have the instinct or desire to destroy that piece due to your offense then you should ask yourself an even deeper question; Why is my desire to censor a piece rooted in direct proportional degree to the offense I'm currently feeling? Use your voice to criticize art you disagree with after the fact instead of using your power to censor it before anyone has a chance to see it. Like Horus we should confront chaos willingly with an open eye instead of hiding in cowardice. At the end of the day if we constrain people’s freedom to express themselves through art then we will constrain freedom of thought in general which is the mechanism that allows the artist to dream in the first place. Let’s not make this a “Rules for thee but not for me” situation. You can tell a lot about a society based on how they treat their artists. Those who treat their artists like absolute crap are obviously quite resistant to change. Yet even here we’re seeing people from a diverse range of views looking in absolute disgust as they call for Kanye to be censored. They want to control him. They want to be the managers of thought for Kanye West. Artists must be free to create.
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2-minute read  The following work is a handpicked piece from the full Apollo Art Archive. In the early morning of the 24th of February, 2022 Russia began a full-scale invasion of their sovereign neighbor Ukraine. At 03:00 GMT the assault began in Donbass as Vladimir Putin warned the world that any attempt to interfere would cause “consequences they have never before seen”.
Vladimir Putin’s goal is quite clear. He states this invasion “aims to protect people who have been bullied and subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.” Despite failing to define what constitutes “genocide”, Putin goes on to state that Russia strives for the “de-militarization” and “de-Nazification” of Ukraine. One must ask themselves why the heavily inflated rhetoric of words like “genocide” and “Nazi” are being used to justify such a violent assault on this sovereign country. Perhaps the leader of Russia knows of the possibility that his words may create an emotional reaction which blinds his opponents from casting any blame on these actions? After all, shouldn’t we fight Nazis? Our background is the Ukrainian flag of two horizontal bands of the yellow and blue which represent the symbolic combination of the yellow fields and blue sky across the lands. We note this duality driving the stylized form of many other elements in the spatial composition. It's hard not to notice the red within this work. These may remind of the drops of blood as they sit in scattered form across the canvas. Why do you think our subject has such a surreal shape and form? It's almost as if she's mangled by the chaotic which confronts us all in this moment we simultaneously share. We see a variation of the traditional masks from Japanese culture with an open third eye. What do you think this symbolizes? Watch carefully when evil surfaces; Do not escape or cower in fear from the threat which faces you We’re currently witnessing the largest invasion since WWII... What’s next? Although Dead Seagull received a showcase just yesterday we find it incredibly important to showcase this work today. One may criticize this move as propaganda or the appropriation of the arts to serve political purposes, and if that be the case, then Apollo promises no apology. We cannot sit quietly when hell stands burning at our doorstep. Overall this historic and horrific digital illustration presents a lone portraiture whose third eye watches carefully as Russia invades Ukraine to the calamitous cries of over 40 million innocent civilians "leave me alone." Dead Seagull (dead_seagull_ on Instagram) What do you see when you view this piece? 1-minute read  Image taken from <https://makeawebsitehub.com/social-media-sites/> Today I wanted to talk about the same thing in a few different ways. To start off I'll say that whenever I look at an art piece I feel like I'm looking at a window into the soul of the artist. Each person provides a differing and diverse perspective.
We can learn a lot from each other through this exchange. The idea of “The Brickwall” is essentially when you're talking to someone and there's no way that their mind will ever be changed. Not only that but they'll tell you you're wrong without explaining how you are wrong. For example I was in a comment section talking to someone about the metaverse and they said “You have no idea what you're talking about.” Instead of actually telling me what I got wrong, how I could change it, or how their perspective differs from mine, they'll simply say you're wrong and walk away. It's pretty silly to reject something publicly then just run away, right? I believe that if we really want to get to the bottom of the truth in front of us then we need to be a lot more open to conversation. We can't simply tell someone that they're wrong and walk away. In that same way, whenever someone creates an art piece that you don't like per se, or from a different perspective which you may not share then you should look at that piece twice as much. Take some time with that piece just as you would take some time with new ideas which someone presents to you. Digest, reflect and connect with the idea in any way possible in order to be grateful for this differing perspective. I believe this is incredibly important and I think we need to do this more and more as time goes on. I think people need to create more writings, more posts and more art to represent how they feel. Later through the expression of words we can then articulate why we feel a certain way. This is how we can overcome "The Brickwall" in order to reach a whole new level of diverse understanding alongside an entirely new level of unity across many differing perspectives. 2-minute read - What is an Art Collective? - Decentralized Creator Economy - Cross-Creator Collaboration - Blockchains, Cryptocurrencies & NFTs  An Art Collective is when a group of artists come together to unite on a shared goal. In the modern day they may write a contract to create a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).
Let's say you have an indie film production going on. You have a bunch of different people who are providing different aspects to that final product whether they are actors, budget investors, directors, providing cameras etc. In this example we have a group of creators coming together to mint their project as a Non-Fungible Token (NFT). As you can imagine there are a ton of different implications for this type of production. An NFT is only a singular digital asset. There needs to be some type of agreement or smart contract which will automatically distribute the revenue from that project in a way which is agreed upon by all parties involved. We really need to be conscious and mindful about how we can utilize the increasingly decentralized digital world to distribute the revenue to everyone who contributed in a way which is simultaneously fair and just for all individuals involved. The DAO or Art Collective DAO isn’t something that has to be permanently managed either. For a group similar in kind to the former band BROCKHAMPTON the revenue for that project could continue to support those artists even after they broke up due to the agreement created within the DAO. As a fluid creator such as a cameraman you could be working with multiple Art Collectives at once. Due to this you would be gaining revenue on every resale of every NFT you’ve ever collaborated on for the rest of your life. We’re moving towards a world of increasing decentralization. Instead of relying on these centralized groups, corporations and companies to dictate what we can do we now have a newfound level of virtual sovereignty. Instead of worrying about digital assets and data being on a centralized program they can now exist individually in each person’s wallet. These are stored separately to be distributed, sold or held at their holder’s discretion. This removes a lot of the barriers of censorship and centralized influence which suppress individual sovereignty day after day. It's important to realize what's really going on here. Decentralization is mixing in every possible way. Due to this I believe the idea of the Art Collective is about to get a whole lot more common. Instead of negotiating from the top down to the individual we will collaborate starting at the individual building up only as high as necessary. Instead of relying on these centralized groups to tell us what we can or cannot do with our own projects we can now collaborate with each other as sovereign individuals stitched together for a common goal. Instead of artists having to negotiate with someone in a high company or corporation they can now collaborate with each other's collective interest in mind instead. The Art Collective or DAO will continue to fuel decentralization through the mass adoption of blockchains, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and universal cryptocurrencies. Furthermore I’d bet money that these concepts will empower every individual on a level we've never seen before. I’ll see you in five years. Created by APOLLO / Lingual Literacy, Arts & Performance Art 3-minute read  Image taken from <https://blog.adioma.com/5-personality-traits-infographic/> One time when I was at an elementary school summer camp I was following a boy in front of me as we were running into a classroom. The lights in the classroom were already off and I saw him run ahead of me. Suddenly he tripped over the chair of a desk and fell forward onto the ground. Whenever that happened I had this strange vision where I could see his perspective of what it was like even though he was far in front of me.
This was when I first noticed my visionary mind. Those high in one of the big five personality traits called openness tend to be more interested in ideas; Those who are high in openness are highly creative. It's as if ideas and visions just sprout from nowhere. As time has progressed my propensity towards the creative realm has not diminished in any way. In reality it has only gotten stronger as I've trained it through writing and drawing alongside interacting with others to learn from a diverse range of experiences. Similarly, ever since I was a boy, I would always get some type of song stuck in my head. If it wasn't a song then it was a simple rhythm constantly playing over and over again. As I grew older I explored the Fine Arts, playing in concert and marching band from 6th to 12th grade. My hyperactive mind then became a tremendous advantage as I could get the music stuck in my head quite easily. Due to this I could be practicing and reinforcing my knowledge even when an instrument wasn't in front of me. Today I utilize my hyperactive mind in the context of writing, storytelling and art analysis for the Apollo Art Exchange. When I look at a piece of art it feels as if words come out of nowhere. Excuse what might sound as spiritual esotericism but it feels as if the piece calls forth to me from a higher order. It doesn't take very much effort for me to look at a piece and instantly invoke singular words, phrases or even full sentences to convey the work’s experience in my own perspective. Today, a song is always stuck in my head. When one song isn't stuck in my head then another is instead. Alternatively it can be the voice of a content creator I've listened to on YouTube or even the voice of an author when reading their work. I can only speak for myself, but I do believe this is the mark of a creative mind high in openness. I have read that artists like Kanye describe something similar. It’s as if their artistic spirit possesses them to fuel their enthusiasm as a cultural pioneer. When I listen to music I often get visions of what I imagine the music video to appear as. Most times this presents itself in relation to my personal life in the context of both triumph and tragedy. Listening to the song “Gravity” by The Code presents visions of a dangerous hedonistic lifestyle with a car crash at the end while the song “NARC” by Mega Drive inspires scenes of music production climaxed by an endless fall within a psychedelic void. I cannot explain where these visions come from; I can only interpret my visions similarly to the way I study and respect the dreamscape as clues from the collective unconscious. Whenever artists have a vision it's not as if they simply think of it. It's that the vision comes to them suddenly. An artist may have a vision in their dreams and choose to replicate it upon a concrete canvas while another may have a vision or an idea during their waking hours. The creative type must create their vision before it evaporates into the forgotten void of the collective unconscious. A few years ago I considered producing music. I never got around to exercising that consideration. It is something that I look upon with great curiosity as I can easily add multiple layers to a song I'm listening to live by tapping, drumming, singing or humming. When Kanye's stem player came out I was immediately intrigued all over again. It felt as if this calling was instantly reinvigorated, reinforced and reintroduced into my mind. Suddenly this passion came flooding back to me and it felt like I wanted to create some music. Although I haven't purchased the stim player I still look on with great curiosity as I wonder what will happen when I begin my creative endeavor into the musical region of the creative domain. For now I am stuck only with my thoughts, my visions and the songs that always play in my head. Some might call me crazy, others call me RADIOHEAD. 4-minute read  Image taken from our "Art Appreciation" section We have a ton planned for this year whether it's representing the gallery through statistics (or) whether it is wrapping up our first year ever. We have a ton to study, a ton to learn and a ton to grow so it's absolutely exciting.
What I wanted to discuss today was the idea of a Smart Museum. What that means essentially is Apollo Art Exchange can do what physical Art Museums can not, and that is representing the gallery through a multitude of statistics. For example, we could represent the gallery by artist representation. We have four different classifications for artists based on popularity. This is not a concrete definition by any means, it's just a way for us to categorize them a lot more efficiently behind the scenes. We have our Underserved artists which have three thousand or less followers across social media. Then we have our Anchor artists, which have 3,000 to 10,000 followers. Then we have our Established artists which have about 10K to 50,000 followers. Finally anyone with 50,000 followers above we call our Prestiged artists. The reason I created this is to be able to hold us accountable for showcasing smaller artists. I can represent each gallery by month, I can represent the whole gallery by that or I can represent bits and pieces such as style-based galleries like Cyberpunk. I could represent time-based, so I can do artist's representation for the whole month, artist's representation for the quarter, half year, full year etcetera. So that's really just to hold us accountable for showcasing smaller artists because at the end of the day that is a major goal of mine. I think that everyone should at least have a chance to be seen so it's really up to the viewer at that point. So that's just one idea of representing the Art Museum in statistics. Another way is by top pieces. I could do the top five pieces of the month by likes, top five pieces of the quarter, top five pieces of the year. I can do it by likes or I can do it by saves. I can do it by shares or I could do it by follows, so which piece has actually caused people to follow the page. There's an almost endless intersecting multitude of statistics for the Art Museum which is really, really exciting for me. I've kept my head down and I've been writing about four to eight paragraphs a day on each new art piece to try and give artists some exposure, so to be able to look back at my own work, study and categorize it is really exciting for me. What you'll see is we currently have some released on the BriidgeTheGap website. You'll see our archive growth rate, our artist's representation to date and then you'll also see our follower growth rate to date. So I have that for the full one to date and then I also have quarter three in isolation because those are what we just released publicly. I really do believe that with these kind of personalized statistics within the Art Museum we can start to unlock a lot of insights that a physical Art Museum could never. At the end of the day I do think it will give us a big advantage when we start to look at a decade, two decades, three decades of creation and having such an amount of statistics that the physical Art Museum simply does not. Essentially what we're going to be doing for the Apollo Community Token holders, what we call our token holders. Anyone who has an Apollo Community Token NFT will have access to the most in-depth statistics possible other than the behind-the-scenes statistics. < Where to get your own Apollo Community Token | rarible.com/011615121215 > We're talking each individual month. They'll have archive rate, follower rate as well as top pieces from the month and artist representation for the month. The Apollo Community Token holders will have first access to those and they will be able to look into the gallery on a much deeper level because they're supporting our work directly. We want to give back to them and give them some deeper insights into the museum. Other than that we do have our public releases every quarter. We will release the top five pieces. We will release the archive growth, artist representation and the follower growth. Right now, we are currently aiming for 20 to 25 percent of the full archive to be underserved. So that's 1 in 5 artists or 1 in 4 artists out of the entire gallery will have less than 3,000 followers. This, I think, gives smaller artists a really good kind of foot-in-the-door to be able to be discovered on a whole different level that we're going to see in the future. We also have increased track map statistics, which is essentially how we can map exposure. For example, someone discovers our work on our page and then that results in them going to the original artist’s profile and following them. We call that a spillover effect and then the whole kind of mapping or the phenomenon of that is the track map itself. So there are a ton of different ways to represent our museum. We really do think that this is going to give an amazing level of exposure, an amazing level of transparency, an amazing level of accessibility and just to be honest with the public because we are a public Art institution. At the end of the day, I do believe that people should at least be able to look at how the gallery breaks down from artists representation, from how fast we're growing the archive and etcetera. The Smart Museum is something that's happening day by day. It's constantly evolving, It's constantly changing and we are constantly mapping that out. As I've said before, we are doing what a physical Art Museum could never and it is really exciting. I really do think, as we start to look at a much longer time period we’ll really see the difference in the insights and the statistics here. Even as an original artist, if you come to us and you want to see some more about the gallery that you're being represented within then we have the statistics on-hand and we can provide a massive level of transparency completely. If you want to see our current statistics please go to BriidgeTheGap.com, you'll see that under the Four Pillars and Art Appreciation Tab and from there you'll be able to look at all of our currently publicly-released statistics to look at the museum on a much deeper level. Thank you guys, I absolutely look forward to 2022. It's gonna be a massive, massive year and there’s so much to get done, and we’re never going to stop, so we’ll see y’all next time. Apollo Art Exchange is a ecosystem of art appreciation which empowers the artist in the modern day through the use of writing, narrative storytelling, multi-platform content distribution and daily networking in the constantly evolving virtual metaverse 5-minute read - Resistance to new technology - Public response to innovation - Innovation as a delayed tsunami - State of Web 3.0 / Digital Ownership  Image taken from ARK's "Big Ideas" 2022 Report Ever heard of the luddites? Their fate may be treated like prophecy in the modern day.
In the early 19th century the world was blessed with the invention of the mechanized loom. Before this production was reliant on a group of trained artisans. When they realized this new machinery threatened their source of income they resorted to destroying textile machines and burning their factories to the ground. They named themselves the "Luddites" after a man named Ned Ludd who the locals said had destroyed a textile factory The fate of the luddite has been seen with television, phones, the internet, social media, virtual currency and even video games. Things always happen similarly; We are blessed with a new technology that isn't quite matured, then a majority writes off this technology in its entirety. In a way, we can’t blame them. Once we saw innovation of hardware like no other; Now we live in a jungle of software applications which scale in increasing complexity daily. This complexity brings endless new challenges from removing violent material on video streaming services to the methodical manipulation of emails to scam unsuspecting users. When a new application or piece of hardware is created it will always bring new challenges. When we create something we are stepping into the frontier by pushing the boundaries of our technological limitations. How else will we learn not to step in the same pit twice? We are seeing this story happen with Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) due to a majority of the users of Web 3.0 being overtly and borderline obsessively focused with short-term profits. This can be seen everywhere from its roots within the culture of crypto to the seemingly endless bad actors which permeate various blockchains to mint their scams. We saw an immense amount of scams in the early days of email and content creation until these actors developed a reputation and the collective community got smarter. Now we educate new users on the dangers of suspicious links and its implications within digital literacy. We cannot blame those who are cynical of NFTs until we seriously get this under control through active education and the development of a stronger and more robust system of support. This can be viewed as the “pioneer” stage of a technology’s development. Then things get really quiet... the developers are scaling in relative silence. They're programming the platform day after day completely unbeknownst to the skeptics and the cynics. In the eye of the public and viral relevancy this technology has “fallen off” as if it was just a fad after all... The skeptics will look and still see nothing but complex lines, numbers, statistics and programs. Meanwhile the developers have solved a problem; They release it to internal testing and subsequently to the entire world through the interconnected metaverse, also known as the internet. The users discover new capabilities, which they benefit from with higher levels of efficiency, access, productivity and ease of communication. Users rise in quantity and people talk. Now the ball is rolling… Mass adoption happens day-by-day over a long period of time instead of all at once as many expect. Think of the amount of people who are just now discovering the internet, logging onto YouTube and utilizing these programs for their day to day lives. Suddenly the skeptics are a little less convicted in their criticism; It’s almost as their problems had been resolved by the developers years ago, yet the skeptics still live in the old snapshot of their past perspective Next we see innovation and code built upon these previous developments fuel an even higher level of productivity Ripples of change and impact are sent across the interconnected world. The skeptics are now surrounded by users of the very same program which they had originally dismissed Change has arrived…. Developers are the architects of the metaverse The decentralization of communication (Web 2.0) is merging with the decentralization of finance (Web 3.0) This is then merging with Augmented & Virtual Reality capabilities; Which is all slowly merging with AI and DAOs We're on the precipice of a new wave of social change which skeptics continually doubt; We are about to see a mass empowerment of the individual with increased ownership across the entire interconnected metaverse We are about to unlock a whole new level of productivity and insight... The world will never be the same. 2-minute read  Screenshot from speech video at Mason Temple church in Memphis, Tennessee In the spirit of MLK Day I'd like to share his final words spoken publicly
This speech highlights the importance of extending the promise set in the US bill of rights to all Americans. It is extremely important to understand how far we've come as a nation thanks to brave citizens who have fought and continue to fight for our freedoms and liberties. Below I have provided a clipped transcript of King's "I've been to the Mountaintop" speech which was spoken at the Mason Temple church in Memphis, Tennessee on the 3rd of April in the year 1968 I hope you enjoy these punctual and powerful words by my favorite orator! "If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn't committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right! So just as I say, we aren't going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on. (......) Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." 5-minute read - The spirit of regret - Why regret is important - How to channel regret to your benefit - Writing down past memories - Dreams - Why we dream - How to analyze your dreams - Lucid dreaming, Normal dreams & Nightmares  There will be times in your life when you experience a sense of overwhelming failure and regret. It may grip your chest whilst ceasing any chance at rest as it consumes your thoughts, emotions and sense of self-worth simultaneously in a sea of uncertain insecurity.
We shouldn't fight these feelings; Allow the fog, guilt and shame of regret to wash over your body like a consequential cleansing. Breath so you may begin to reflect on the implications of what has happened. Did you let a close friend down? Has a promise been broken? Why did your plans and perspective fall short of the end result? What caused this? These are not simple questions to answer. One may lead you to a path of self discovery while another may pull you right back beneath the previous hell you've endured. Despite the path which lay ahead it is important to recognize that the tragedies in life are exactly what strengthen our personal resiliency; Life is a continual story of building yourself back up despite the endless tragedies you face. As we experience more throughout life the feedback provided by these memories work to single out the most beneficial options. This becomes paramount in order to prevent stepping in the same pit twice. This is the exact reason why risks are extremely important; Risk provides a set of game rules for growth in a particular direction. Failure (and the sense of regret which may accompany it) then becomes even more paramount to growth than risk itself. First we must recognize that we cannot get back the time we have lost. Secondly we must recognize that the choice to dwell on such decisions only consumes more time into your increasingly important future. Finally we must recognize what has happened and what we’re going to do in order to lessen the likelihood that it will happen again. I’d like to suggest a method I’ve discovered from JBP. He’s a clinical psychologist who has gained a rather immense following across the social media platform YouTube. This method or exercise is rather simple yet infinitely impactful when approached with an attentive and open mind. Write down the memory of your source of regret carefully and completely Now you're probably thinking: "Why would I do this? It makes me cringe! If I write it down, I'll remember it forever!" Exactly. What use does forgetting provide? It's like discovering mold on the walls of a new home. Should we simply paint over it and risk it's spread like a virus left unattended? I ask again: What use does forgetting provide? One may argue that to forget is to reduce and remove what's causing the negativity. Do we really think this is true? If you see a snake and you close your eyes, is the snake still there? Self-awareness is paramount to preventing another event or source of regret; When we remain ignorant to the causes of our suffering we risk bringing about an even greater degree of negativity. This holds a high potential of snowballing and burying us beneath its emotional implications Write down the memory carefully and completely; Why has this happened? As we grow through life there will be an inevitable tide of change within you and everyone you know. When we make continual changes to our daily lives it requires a level of sacrifice and personal revision which may be exceptionally hard. After all, when you change a habit you are putting a part of yourself into the fire in exchange for a new spirit like a phoenix. You must not resent yourself through the natural spirit of regret; Grow, Learn and Rise like a phoenix Next I’d like to discuss the idea of dreams, the act of dreaming and the purpose of the dreamscape in relation to our day to day lives. The setting or location of dreams is what I’ll refer to as the dreamscape. It is arguably a fictional realm with seemingly endless possibilities; The dreamscape can be compared to the idea of imagination itself as it ebbs, flows, creates, plays and destroys entire scenarios within an instant. Within this realm time may dilate to extreme degrees as it holds no consistency with the way time passes in the real world When we ask ourselves what the purpose of dreaming is one may easily find themselves confused. However after reconsidering our primitive and primal roots one finds everything they need to know. Dreams create and recreate scenarios for us to encounter in order to prepare ourselves for the unknown Our brains reconstruct a novel or explored experience with all five senses of sight, sound, touch, smell and even taste. When we think about this it sounds quite remarkable that our brain holds the ability to not only create entire worlds with conscious experiences but to do so while simultaneously controlling time. The realm of the dreamscape is meant to force us to confront our problems in hopes of sparking a change in action while awake. If we think about this in a primitive sense we can imagine our ancestors dreaming of large predatory cats, snakes, and eventually other humans. These can be imagined as prophetic visions created for your defense. Dreams in the modern context have become quite confusing. When we combine the immense complexity of our daily lives to the construction of dreams it often results in incoherent and irregular experiences. For example, you may begin a dream in a massive mall yet when you turn around you’re now in the living room of your childhood home; An almost endless list of factors impact the complexity of modern dreams If this all is true then what should we do about it? Should we allow the callings of our dreams to continually haunt us at night? Or should we begin to watch, listen and learn from our personal dreams? Your mind is trying to show you something… are you listening? Let’s run through a simple example of how to analyze a dream. You’re on the 10th floor of your work building. You get into the elevator and after a few seconds of a rather calm descent the elevator suddenly plummets to the ground and you wake up in a sweat. Then let’s assume that you’ve had this dream six times in the past week. What can we make of this strange dream? What could we learn from the story which our brain has shown us? Perhaps you've suddenly come to the realization that the reason you’re always anxious in the elevator at work is because you have a fear of heights or a fear of the elevator itself. Only by contemplating on both the dream and its importance to your day to day life will you discover the key to solving a personal problem; Don’t ignore the content of your dreams Finally I’d like to share the way I think about Nightmares, Regular dreams and Lucid dreams. When I consider the way in which these three categories play out in the Dreamscape I find it highly reminiscent of a spectrum of control. In the nightmare you have little to no element of control. Endless clowns, killers, lions and ghosts may be chasing you yet your feet won’t move. Perhaps you’re watching something bad happen yet your voice refuses to work. We can think of this as the end of the spectrum with the lowest level of control. In the regular dream you have a limited level of control. You may be walking through a familiar environment interacting with people and objects but then seconds later you’re on the beach overlooking the ocean. We can think of this as the middle of the spectrum which does not necessarily result in a negative or frightening experience. In a lucid dream you are mostly or completely in control. You may change the environment at will as well as the people, objects and interactions happening within. We can think of this as the end of the spectrum with the highest level of control. Enter the dreamscape at your own risk; I wish you the best of luck traveler 2-minute read  Image taken from <www.worldometers.info/demographics/world-demographics/> What if you had never been born?
Every memory, person, place and event you've ever experienced would be completely different. Your day to day decisions send ripples across our culture with much more impact than you could ever imagine. What if social media was never invented? What if the internet itself was never created? If you're reading this then there's a fair chance you're living in a developed country with access to Web 2.0 infrastructure. The Internet likely plays some role in your daily life in one way or another. If you were to ask yourself the question “What am I grateful for?”, what answer would arise? Let us begin with the necessities: Do you have access to clean drinking water? Do you have access to a local market of food? Do you live in a safely constructed home? Do you have a bed to sleep in at night? Does your home have running water? What about electricity? Do you have access to the Internet? How fast is your bandwidth? Do you live in a country where you can say what you believe without being imprisoned? Do you live in a country where you can practice your religion without being persecuted? Once again I ask the reader to contemplate on the implications of such questions. In the modern western world many live in immense luxury. What was once reserved only for the highest elites has now been decentralized to almost every single home. Once upon a time we had to transfer physical paper by horseback just to talk to each other; Communication has been gifted to the masses and countless individuals have been empowered. We’ve seen these implications echo everywhere from the Arab Spring to the Pearl River Delta and even the 2020 US Presidential Election. When you reach the end of your life what will stand out as the highest sources of gratitude? Let us take a moment of gratitude more often. |