The Dream Tapestry highlights the positive uses of today’s AI and how museums can be a force for change
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. — Since The Dalí Museum’s Dream Tapestry AI experience opened three months ago, over 35,000 personal dreams have been made into digital paintings. The experience invites Museum visitors to recount their dreams with written words that are translated into visuals. The Dream Tapestry is powered by OpenAI’s DALL·E2 AI system. This use of generative AI marks the first time that inputs from multiple people have been used to create one unified image.
“The Dream Tapestry stands out among other AI offerings,” said Hank Hine, executive director of The Dalí Museum. “Visitors are coming to The Dalí with friends and loved ones to collectively envision a future together through visualizing their dreams. The result is powerful and illuminates common goals and distinct visions. This exemplifies the work of museums today — we are not only preserving history, we are shaping the future.”
Spanning a variety of themes, most of The Dalí Museum’s visitor inputs describe dreams about nature, the universe and travel. The Museum has uncovered several commonalities in the descriptions of visitors’ dreams including flying, beaches, skies and water.
“It is fascinating to examine the collective dreams of those visiting The Dalí,” said Beth Bell, the Museum’s marketing director who has analyzed the initial dream inputs. “A lot of the dreams are quite surreal, such as ‘a whale in the clouds,’ ‘flying kittens’ or ‘I’m floating in an elevator,’ which are reflective of some of the unusual juxtapositions found in Salvador Dalí’s works.”
The Dream Tapestry was developed by The Dalí with Goodby Silverstein & Partners in collaboration with Minds Over Matter and utilizes OpenAI’s DALL·E 2 system. Visitors encounter this collective dream experience as a final stop in The Dalí Museum’s special exhibition, The Shape of Dreams, which includes dream-inspired works by Frida Kahlo, Paul Delvaux, Pat Steir, Philip Guston, Max Beckmann, Lodovico Carracci, Luca Giordano and Odilon Redon. Several artworks from The Dalí’s permanent collection are placed in dialog with these loans to examine how Western artists have conveyed dreams over the past 500 years.
One Museum visitor expressed, “I was in awe of this experience. I loved seeing how my dreams manifested into artwork.” Another said the best part of their visit was “having a conversation with other visitors about their dreams and taking a piece of their dream home with me.” Finally, one guest shared, “We enjoyed the Dream Tapestry as a family. It was a wonderfully rich experience for all — from my 84-year-old grandmother to my 11-year-old daughter.”
More information, including videos and a collection of the works created with the Dream Tapestry experience is available at thedali.org/dreaming.
Dream Tapestry is at The Dalí through April 30. The presenting sponsor of The Shape of Dreams is Therapedic | Tommy Bahama Mattresses with support from Antinori & Weinman Families, Aveda Florida, BNO Creative Labs and Sandy Taraszki & David Zuern. The airport partner is St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport (PIE) and the hotel partner is TradeWinds Island Resorts.
About The Dalí Museum
The Dalí Museum, located in picturesque downtown St. Petersburg, Fla., is home to one of the most acclaimed collections of a single modern artist in the world, with over 2,000 works representing every moment and medium of Salvador Dalí’s creative life. The Dalí is recognized internationally by the Michelin Guide with a three-star rating; has been deemed “one of the top buildings to see in your lifetime” by AOL Travel News; and was named one of the 10 most interesting museums in the world by Architectural Digest. The Dalí’s acclaimed digital experiences have received numerous national and international awards for creative innovation. The Museum is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to preserve Dalí’s legacy for generations to come and serve as an active resource in the cultural life of the community and the world at large. The Dalí is open daily, located at One Dalí Boulevard, St. Petersburg, Fla. 33701. For more information, visit TheDali.org or download the free Dalí Museum App.
# # #
Media contact: Brad Tuggle | Blue Water Communications
media@bluewatercommunications.biz | 800-975-3212