Concept rendering by Regina Teng
Installation view of Day/Dream
Day/Dream is a collaborative spatial project on Sunset Boulevard by artist Sara Suárez and architect Regina Teng. The project originates from concepts of perception and fluidity, dreams and collectivity, and complements M&A's Heat Aid initiative that addresses water and shade inequity through gathering and redistributing crucial resources during hot months.
Day/Dream collapses layers of optical design with immaterial and ephemeral phenomena: while Suárez orchestrates a composition of community-sourced dream narratives and imagery across the space, Teng uses lenses to cast watery refractions and modulate light’s thermal effects. In a moment when our needs for liveable environments and new relationalities are increasingly urgent, this convergence of practices explores the radical, material potentials of seemingly ephemeral phenomena.
The project transforms from day to night:
DAY
As sunlight passes through lenses, bright flares and iridescence appear on nearby surfaces. These light patterns are caustics, formed as light is bent by the curved surface of a reflective or refractive material. In architecture, the study of caustics has been limited primarily to visual effects, yet the term’s etymology derives from causticus, “to burn,” suggesting their thermal potential. Within the M&A Storefront project space, a range of Fresnel lenses are arrayed across a series of cables, held in balance by counterweights. During the day, they work to passively cool or heat the space by mediating and redirecting sunlight, while offering inverted and magnified views of the worlds within and outside the space. This full-scale architectural model tests the thermal effects of various lens arrangements, manipulating optical logics to redefine transparency and its aesthetics within an ecologically-conscious system.
NIGHT
As night falls, the space reorients around an interior dreamscape, produced through the refraction, bending, and moderation of collective dream content. This night-time environment draws upon an archive of dreams collected during Gathering Tides, a series of public convenings led by Suárez in which participants co-created a “reservoir” of remembered dreams: a shared archive of images, sensations, symbols, and stories collected from the surreal terrains of sleep. This dream reservoir, reexpressed by Suárez through moving images, soundscapes, and voice recordings, shifts and echoes throughout the space, mediated by Teng’s lenses. The composition centers and thinks with water: scarce, essential, and threatened in waking life, yet a deeply resonant symbol that speaks to the fluidity of dreams and potentials of sharing resources.
Day/Dream is on view May 13 through September 24. The project space will be open to visitors during in-person programs and by appointment. We encourage and will happily receive donations of water and other HEAT AID items during in-person programs.
Dream Contributors: Martín Veléz, Alex the Brown, Anya Ventura, Azadeh Ahmadi, Benny Reiss, Carole Suarez, Carter Stoddard, Céline Brunko, Def Sound, Elenie Chung, Emma Stefansky, Greg Ayapantecatl, Ikechukwu Sharpe, Irene Gil-Ramon, Ivan Eduardo Rivera, Jake Jackson, Jason Livingston, Kate Yeh Chiu, laura nelson, M Woods, Mal Young, Maya Nutria, Michael Lee, Sandra Olkowski, Sean Huntley, Simona Ferrari, Simone Johnson, Trevor Byrne, Water School, Zelikha Zohra Shoja
This project is generously supported by Meiying Optics.
Spanning moving images, spatial design, and optical research, Day/Dream is the culmination of the first M&A Storefront co-residency, a series of spatialized, transdisciplinary collaborations that aim to reject and confound the divisive effects of disciplinarity.
Past Events
Sara Suárez is a filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist working across experimental film, sound composition and social practice, interested in sensory and spatial perception, shared spaces and landscapes, collective memory, and co-creative processes.
Her works include visual and sonic landscape studies that incorporate audio collage, electronic composition, and analog film processes. She is currently developing a collection of work considering the physical and social experiences of darkness, sleep, and dreaming, and the forces that degrade these essential needs. Her work has been featured by LA Filmforum, Slamdance, Alchemy Film Festival, ICDOCS, Chicago Underground Film Festival and other venues.
Suárez is also the co-founder of virtual care lab, an interdisciplinary project platform and creative community interrogating issues of care, solidarity, co-creation, and trust in virtual space. She completed her MFA at CalArts and works in Los Angeles.
Regina Teng is an architectural designer and founding principal of GINAA. Her work focuses on the atmospheric intersections of environment, nature, and culture. A native Angeleno, she has worked and exhibited internationally, including in Tokyo, Sydney, Zurich, Shanghai and the UK. Regina’s current research examines the potential for optic caustics, the reflection, refraction, and projection of light through materials, to operate as part of a passive thermal strategy.
She is also Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University GSAPP, and has taught previously at USC, UCLA, and Princeton University.