Wilkerson, Richard Catlett (1997). The History of Dreams in Cyberspace: A Proposal by Richard Wilkerson . Electric Dreams 4(1), www.dreamgate.com/dream/ed-backissues/ed4-1.htm (Jan 30, 1997)




The History of Dreams in Cyberspace:

A Proposal by

Richard Wilkerson


One the ongoing and persistent problems with the presentation of histories is that must always be written from a limited perspective which favors the fantasies and bias of the writer and the values they write from. This is unlikely to change, but the Internet offers a new challenge and opportunity, that of the un-fixed and evolving text. Unlike its offline counterparts that are etched into dead trees and expensive typesettings, the Net Texts offer the chance for any netizen to contribute by way of addition, or any political body to request or fight for alterations by way of consensus and other appeals. Generally this is done by the request for link exchange, though text and graphics may also be directly added to web, ftp and gopher sites.

Earlier in 1996 we published on the Web an educational center for the ASD conference XIII in Berkeley and since then several new historic cyber-dream items were revived, such as John Herbert's research on comparing face-to-face vs computer mediated dream groups and the beginnings of alt.dreams.

What I would like to propose is a continuation of this cyber-history compilation. I've already sent in a request to have this project mentioned in the next ASD program in Asheville next year and will be doing a two part column on this in the ASD Newsletter. If anyone that is going to the conference is discussing dreams and cyberspace, the site will make a nice background support.

If you are interested, begin thinking about what you might want to contribute. My own focus will be on dream sharing, which I see as including such wide categories as dream inspired art galleries and dream statistical analysis programs as well as more traditional forms. But there is also places for dreams and science, dreams and anthropology, dreams and literature, journaling online, dream talk and discussions, dream education and extraordinary and alternative dreaming

"Last year's" exhibit is still up at :

http://www.dreamgate.com/asd-13/2lb16.htm

And the new site will be more distributed between those interested and having available servers, but my link in spot will be www.dreamgate.com/dream/history

Drop me a line if you are interested in participating in this collective history project.

Richard Wilkerson,

rcwilk@aol.com

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