Göstergebilim Bağlamında Sanatta Rüya ve Bilinç Dışı
Özet
Does a dream reflect reality or does reality reflect a dream? The reality here refers to the level of consciousness, everyday reality – awake life- and things that exist in tangible form. While the perceptions, thoughts, images, wishes, and desires that are formed in reality – at the level of consciousness- are built with sensations, at the same time the person also gains a personality – self-. Freud explains this with the concept of ego. Ego, as one of the concepts that constitute the sense of identity, indicates the visible part of the identity of the person, that is, the surface. Beneath this surface lies Freud's concept of the unconscious, the invisible part of the identity. The unconscious, which consists of suppressed material, is the part that cannot rise to consciousness due to the control and repression of the ego. It is therefore full of impulses, wishes, and desires that need to be satisfied. However, since desires are disguised and unsatisfiable at the conscious level, a feeling of lack arises in the person. The object of desire, whose lack is felt, also creates a sense of emptiness at the conscious level. Therefore, the emptiness, that is formed because the object of desire can never be satisfied in reality – at the conscious level-due to the suppression exerted by the ego, remains as emptiness. However, it manifests itself in the state of sleep – in dreams-, in the unreal area where consciousness and control mechanisms are weakened. In this case, the dream can be defined as emptiness. Because emptiness, like a dream, is an impossible situation.
Based on the hypothesis that the dream is emptiness, this study aims to investigate how the invisible parts of the person's identity – the unconscious- in reality – in awake life- can be explained through signs. As in the sign, there is a relationship between a signifier and a signified in a dream. While the signifier is a more concrete situation, the signified is the semantic and conceptual dimension of the signifier. Therefore, in reality, there is the signifier of one's identity, whereas in a dream there is the signified of this identity. In this case, the distance between reality and dream creates the identity that emerges within the person. When the relationship between reality and dream is questioned, the identity of the person as a whole will be questioned. When the works of art related to dreams and unconsciousness are explored, it is understood that; through artistic signs, the aim is to reveal the unconscious, which is reached through the images in the dream, in other words, in an uncontrolled environment, and to reach the nakedness of unconscious by eliminating the emptiness in the person in an imaginary order.
