Dear Dreamers,
We assembled at Merrivale on the evening of 15th July. Natasha sent apologies. Then there was Tilly, David, Kate, Sarah, Iman and myself. We also brought our partners from Borneo Bengkel and the four fellows from our Time of the Rivers project which after a fortnight in Sarawak and then another for night across the UK had come to its final night there at Merrivale.
There were cup-a-soup packets, paper cups, a vat of hot water and a loaf of bread. There was also paper, pens, clipboards and a cardboard box that I had cut into to make a letterbox where dreamers could post their dreams. Kate and David led the way across the stones that I (informed by Worth’s Dartmoor) have always thought were burial cairns, but that Tilly says are not, but are a mystery. Where I could I invited the participants to leave space between themselves as they walked across the field so that they could come out of chatter and into the landscape. Kate and David led the way into the stone circle, placed the loaf of bread and the dream recording apparatus into the centre of the circle while the participants dispersed for an hour into the field and then at their own pace back into the circle.
After an hour, I started to strike a singing bowl and led the way from the stone circle to the menhir where Iman recorded sound (though the recording is broken because I had given her the zoom recorder with flat batteries in it). The sound of Tilly reading out the dreams that had been deposited in the box. I remember David and Kate saying that the dreams were very good, but in all honesty I don’t remember the dreams now. I remember the scene. Rizo, one of the participants from Malaysia, said that the place was like a dream. I felt the same. Sarah said that it was as though our whole process had been leading us to this place and we wondered whether we might make this gathering in Merrivale the monthly fixture. It was a beautiful balmy evening in July. I asked whether it would be such a draw on a cold, darky, windy, rainy night in October, November, December? Sarah assured me that it would be for her!
The next day I got an image that I shared with Iman and that I would love to try with you all at the next meeting of the collective at the studio. For an hour everyone if on the floor, maybe starting in a foetal position, with a notepad and pen and blue fluorescent tube light. The invitation is to use this time to focus on the images that come up, whether memories of dreams or memories or just images that occur spontaneously in the moment. After an hour the light switches from blue to amber. Dreamers are invited to sit up and share the imagery that came up during the session. This sharing lasts twenty minutes before the light switches to white where for ten minutes dreamers are invited to share their reflections on the 90 minute session that’s just passed. Then the session closes.
I thought this format might develop into an installation: a participatory performance. I imagined a room filled with compost and dreamers lying down on the compost. I imagined this 90 minute session looped through the day and/or night. Perhaps modified for the loop so that it’s just 60 minutes of blue light and 30 minutes of amber light on repeat. Perhaps topped and tailed with 60 minutes of white light at the beginning and the end of the day.
I imagined very specific camera angles to capture the performance. An aerial view of the blue light periods, then close-ups, from the ground, during the amber light periods.
Just food for thought.
We’ve run Dream Ecologies for a year now. What a rich and rewarding experimental space we’ve cultivated here together. Last week, Iman and I were working on research networks that she is developing as part of her new role at Radical Ecology and she talked about how this space had informed her thinking about the possibility of collaborative method: lightly held, gently sustained, emerging…
How has that worked for you? What has kept you here? What has grown?
Let’s sit with these questions. Let’s take a break in August. We’ll reconvene in September. Get the matrix up and running again from October.
Below is the script we shared at Merrivale. We printed it out. Dreamers could read it at their leisure as the session evolved.
Best Wishes,
Ashish
DREAM ECOLOGIES - 14/07/2025
Merrivale.
Welcome to dream ecologies. Welcome to Merrivale. This ancient stone row site dates back over 3000 years to the Bronze Age. We don’t know exactly why it was built but we fine that it invites quiet, connection and imagination.
FIRST WALK - CARPARK TO STONE CIRCLE [6.30pm to 6.40pm]
Take your time. Pay attention to where you are. Pay attention to the landscape. To the time of the evening. To the colour of the sky. To the texture of the earth. To the fragrance of the air. To the way that you breathe that fragrance into your body. What does it become? Your body, walking, is a part of this landscape. Your feet are connected to the earth. What happens at the extremities of your body? What happens where your finger tips are no longer your finger tips but the movement of the air. Now close your eyes. What can you see?
SECOND WALK - THE STONE CIRCLE [6.40pm to 7.40pm]
Let’s think about dreaming.
Here, we’ll walk for an hour around the stone circles. Round and around. Let the stones themselves inform you if you like. Touch them. Close your eyes. What do you see?
Feel free while your walking to talk to your friends. Better still, introduce yourself to someone here who’s walking that you’ve never met before.
Do you dream and do they dream?
When you hear this question, is there a dream that comes to mind? What is it? Is it a dream you dreamt recently or many years before? Have you dreamt it repeatedly or just once? Is there a dream you dreamt once but somehow remembered forever? Where do dreams come from?
If you’d like to write a dream down you should see someone in the centre of the circle with some paper and pens so that you can write your dreams down and a box where you can post your dreams. If you write your dreams down and post them, later, when we gather at the menhir, someone will make a recording while someone reads out everything that was posted in the box.
We’ve been wondering for a while where our dreams originate and dream ecologies has become our pracrtice of recording what comes up through dreams in a particular place on a particular night.
THIRD WALK, STONE CIRCLE TO MENHIR [7.40pm-8pm]
You’ll hear someone with a singing bowl. Follow them down to the menhir where we’ll gather in a circle. Someone will make a recording while someone reads out the dream that was posted into the box. When the dreams are all read out, the session will be over. We’ll all make our own way across the field back to the carpark.
Hello all,
Thanks for this reflection, Ashish! I certainly still feel drawn to Merrivale and loved being there the other week. I thought the stones offered such a powerful holding space for this work. Although, I’m now wondering if my initial enthusiasm would indeed be sustained in the colder months but I’m open to it if others are keen :).
I’ve also really enjoyed this emergent way of working and am looking forward to considering how we might develop the space with intention focussed on questions of method and form going forward. I like the idea of exploring some of studio the ideas, images and movements that you mention, Ashish, and how these might work with an installation/performance- the piles of compost feels an especially striking image. I’m also keen to think about ways of working with Merrivale and how the stones/site might offer more possibilities for further creative responses. The interplay between inside/outside in terms of both location and notions of dreaming seems to be a really rich space for discussion.
Just to check- is there a meeting tomorrow in the studio or a break now until September?
Thanks everyone for creating such a wonderful space to dream together over this past year. Looking forward to speaking more soon.
Best wishes,
Sarah