The Science of Sleep
Many of our posts so far have discussed the inspiration that artists and designers find in sleep. Inevitably, when talking about the science of sleep, Michael Gondry’s 2006 film of the same name comes to mind. Connections between sleep and creativity loom large throughout Gondry’s work. Below are some quotes from interviews in which Gondry discusses how science itself is often his creative inspiration.
From an interview with Michael Guillen of The Evening Class:
Lately, I went to a museum and they showed this little guy—a man in a picture with giant hands—actually he was a representation of a homunculus who is this character; it’s a [representation] of nerve ending in this context…so that’s why there are these big hands in this homunculus character.
I [have] become very drawn to science and [I've] become a little—not scared—but a little differences with what people want to believe. [New Age] is the type of reading my mind would have over and over when I was a kid so now I am not drawn to that; I am more interested to try to read science magazines. I think they are more magical to me.
From an interview in the Guardian:
[My father] was a self-made man; he had long hair and was very interested in music and pop culture. My maternal grandfather was an inventor with many patents for electronic musical instruments. So it was a background that mixed science and art, which I think is a really nice mix to grow up with.
From an interview at PixelSurgeon:
I think science is more fun than mythology. People like things like astrology so that they can believe in an invisible world. But there are a lot of invisible worlds in science too. Who has seen a proton?