The Royal Road to the Unconscious. A project by Simon Morris ina collaboration with Howard Britton, Pavel Büchler, Maurizio Cogliandro, Daniel Jackson and Dallas Seitz. School of Fine Art, Old Mining Building, University of Leeds, 19 April-28 May 2004.

MORRIS, SIMON.

Published by University of Leeds, Leeds., 2004

About this Item

Oblong 24mo. Single sheet card, with b/w decoration. A selection of cut-up text with an address panel posted Dr Stephen Bury of the British Library. The Royal Road to the UnconsciousIn January 2003, utilising Ed Ruscha s book, Royal Road Test as a readymade set of instructions, Simon Morris and 78 of his students cut out every work from Sigmund Freud s 736 page book The Interpretation of Dreams (including the index - 333,960 words).Morris states that, "Ruscha s extraordinary project left me wondering what would happen if Freud s words were thrown out of a car window at 90 m.p.h. Freud s text, The Interpretation of Dreams explores the unconscious mind through a series of case studies. The unconscious mind is supposed to reverse the natural order of things. In dreams, objects can often appear the wrong size, words are disconnected from meaning and ideas can seem arbitrary and unrelated. Freud s text explores these ideas but his writing adopts the opposite form. His words are highly considered, his sentences carefully structured and his arguments carefully crafted. What would happen if you subjected his entire random act of utter madness? Ed Ruscha s project had provided me with a readymade set of instructions to map onton Sigmund Freud s words. It was not my intention to repeat or copy a Ruscha project but rather to use his instructions in order to conduct an experiment on Freud s writing. For some time now, my work has been concerned with the destruction of meaning followed by a reconstruction of an alternative meaning from the composite elements, and the art existing in the space of play between the two."Simon Morris subjected Freud s text to an aleatory moment - a seemingly random act of utter madness - by throwing the individually cut out of the window of a Renault Clio travelling at 90 mph on Redbridge Road, Crossways, Dorset. The location was 122 miles southwest of Freud s couch. The action freed the words from the structural unity of Freud s text as it subjected them to a random act of utter madness. Seller Inventory # 025562

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Royal Road to the Unconscious. A project...

Publisher: University of Leeds, Leeds.

Publication Date: 2004

Binding: Single sheet.

Condition: Very Good

Edition: First edition.