Cirrus@Austlit

'This article focuses on dreaming and remembering as they relate to process, postulating creative writing as a form of dream-membering. I take an interest in what is going on in our brains, in creative practice, and have begun an exploratory pilot study that maps brain activity, in “real- time”, using Magnetoencephalography (MEG), while participants are engaged in a creative writing workshop (a partnership with Swinburne Neuroimaging). Reflecting upon my practice, across the development of a novel and a collection of short stories, I ponder the ramifications of deep, sensory imagining as it relates to stimulus-for and stimulus-in, in acts of narrative making – considering my engagement with the past, including pre-conscious memories and mental processes. I consider the neural conditions that are necessary for stimulus-induced activity, in my personal practice. Further, I give thought to the brain’s dreamlike capacity to trigger its own neuronal activity within the context of stimulus-induced creative acts. An analysis of processes of dream-membering involves an examination of experiential knowledge, as well as consideration of the relative realness of the narrative world. This leads to a dialogue about the theories of regression (in dreaming) and memory reconsolidation, as twin concepts that more fully explicate iterative processes in creative writing practice. My practice-led research focuses theories from neuropsychoanalysis, specifically the concept of ideasthesia or “sensing concepts” from neuroscience (Nikolić 2016, p. 2), as well as the “unthought known” from psychoanalysis (Bollas 2014, 2017). These theories underpin a process I call ideasthetic imagining. Reflecting upon the impact of my practice on my mind, and my mind’s eye on my practice, I extend previous discussion about ideasthetic imagining, deploying the concept of dream-membering – paying particular attention to the way I employ sensory imagining (informed by pre-conscious memories and mental processes).' 

(Publication abstract)