The Persistence of Memory (La persistència de la memòria) – Salvador Dali 1931

Before understanding this Surrealist art it is important to understand Surrealism.

Surrealism is a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind and aims to revolutionize human experience. It balances a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams. The movement’s artists find magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional. Surrealism is beyond realism and tries to explain alternate reality that cannot be expressed by consciousness.

Dali was 27 when he created one of the most popular art works of history, The Persistence of Memory and one of the most notable works of Surrealism. He wanted to bring to the canvas what a human mind would experience in a dream state. There is a interesting correlation between 3 factors of the real world, dream, time and memory. We need memory to be aware of time, we need time to have memories, but in a dream they become flexible, making us loose reality. Memory becomes unstable and hard to detect how a certain event began or even remember things that haven’t even happened. Time also becomes indiscernible as we cannot tell how long or short a certain event in a dream is. So dreams open up a new window to see an alternate way of seeing our universe where the memory is not coherent. Dali used an interesting technique to enter the state of Hypnagogia, a transition state of consciousness and wakefulness. He would hold a heavy key in his hand and place an inverted container below the chair and take micro naps. When he fell into deep sleep he would drop the key on the container that would wake him up. In those few nanoseconds he would enter a state of Hypnagogia and that was one of the key techniques used in this painting.

It is difficult to communicate an idea, vision, risk, or a concept that does not exist in the real world but in our imagination. This technique used by Dali can be used to communicate the ideas effectively and bring the stakeholders to the same page.
Ease of Operation, User Experience, Ease of Design, Ease of Manufacture, Ease of Creation, Precision

The Persistence of Memory

  • 1

    Visualize Dream/Idea/Concept that does not exist Physically

    1

    Goal - An art where the viewer can easily visualize dream/idea or anything that does not exist

     

    Subject - The viewer

    Object - The entire painting

    Improve - Ease of the viewer in analyzing the art

    Blocker - Translating the dream into art on a Canvas

    Solution - Bring different relevant elements that the user is already aware of like the sea, the desert, clock, a creature, olive tree..etce

    Digitization Principle and ID - Merging01 - 00011000

  • 2

    The melting Clocks

    3

    Goal - Convey the concept of Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Time Dilation which was one of the favorite subjects for Dali.  

    Subject - The viewer

    Object - The melting clocks

    Improve - Ease of the viewer to understand the  indiscernible of Space and time in the dream world

    Blocker - Precision of communicating the key elements from the dream state onto the canvas

    Solution - Transform the properties of the objects which the user is already aware of into the future state. The melting clocks here is the metaphor for the passage of time.  Clock is a metaphor for time, something that the viewer can relate to and melting is a process that happens over time

    Digitization Principle and ID - Transform Property 0001001 - 000000100011

  • 3

    The decaying clock

    2

    Goal- Like the melting clocks, Dali wanted to explain the concept of Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Time Dilation through the another process that happens in the real world, decay. But here it is the only non-melting metallic clock that is decaying with ants on it.

    Subject- The viewer

    Object- The decaying clocks and the ants

    Improve- Ease of the viewer to understand the  indiscernible of Space and time in the dream world

    Blocker- Precision of creating the objects as it is in the dream state

    Solution - Transform the properties of the objects which the user is already aware of into the future state. Like the melting clocks the decaying clock here is the metaphor for the passage of time.  Clock is a metaphor for time, something that the viewer can relate to and the ants on the clock communicates the process of decay which happens over time.

    Digitization Principle and ID - Transform Property 0001001 - 000000100011

  • 4

    The sleeping creature

    2

    Goal- Dali uses this creature in many of his art work and relates to himself. It is his symbolic way of showing that he is in a dream state

     

    Subject- The viewer

    Object- The sleeping creature or the dreamer

    Improve- Ease of the viewer to understand that it is the artists dream state

    Blocker- Creating a component that signifies the state of the artist

    Solution - Bring the transformed self portrait of the artist into the canvas and transform it into a dream state. The clock over it signifies time has no meaning in the dream state

    Digitization Principle and ID - Merging01 - 00011000