The Wandering Mind: You start to wonder whether it's a dream

“The Wandering Mind” is an AI system that refers to dream states and was first presented in the framework of the "You and AI: Through the Algorithmic Lens" exhibition at Pedion tou Areos in Athens in June 2021.

Sampling and recomposing tiny fragments of sound from thousands of global field recordings it finds online, the system generates a winding dream journey for sleeping audiences. In the system’s edition for Ioannina, we enter Paralimnio and dream with the lake and mountains of Ioannina as our background, while traveling and drifting within the mist of our thoughts. Paralimnio becomes then the physical materialization of the liminal site between sleeping and awakening, dream and reality. Through a daily ‘sound bath’ at sundown, we convene a collective action of sleeping together, paying tribute to human habitats of social distance and safe gathering, makeshift shelter and tenuous refuge, mass uprising and fresh air. We invite you to affirm public space and everyone who occupies it by drifting to sleep wherever you find yourself.

The work is part of the Onassis Collection.