Interview: Dylan Starczak // Photos: Nick Astanei
David Musch blurs imagination and reality in a state of surrealism. The Adelaide-based artist began his career in high school as a DJ, and a bit over a decade since, he has expanded his artistic practice into staging, events, and immersive installations.
This year David presents his first solo exhibition, showcased at the Adelaide Fringe. ‘Dream State‘ is a walk-through, eight-room audiovisual experience, journeying through the subconscious and the enigma of our own dreams.
‘Dream State’ is the culmination of David’s expansive career in art, design, and technology — with notable projects under his creative studio, Mapped, including Neon Forest in RCC, Archies Clubhouse, Sidebyside, Motez at WOMADelaide, and Illuminate Adelaide.
This latest exhibition comes amid a major turning point in his career, as he closes the door on Mapped this month and opens the door to a new end-to-end design and production brand, Company, alongside a team of leading Adelaide creatives.
We’ll hear more about Company soon. First, we sat down with him to talk about dreams and creating immersive worlds.
Can you tell us a bit about the concept of ‘Dream State’?
It’s a multi-sensory installation that questions our perceptions of dreams. The question I kept asking myself during its creation was, “What is a dream, and what can a dream be?” That’s what’s prompted in the first room.
All the things that display on the TV in that room are categories of what dreams are, how we perceive dreams, and how different people perceive dreams. There’s an interesting link in how people from all different walks of life perceive dreams very similarly or vastly differently.
Some people don’t dream at all; some people only have nightmares — so their perception of dreams is completely different from everything else. It’s quite subjective.
The undercurrents of the themes that go through each room are based on things I find interesting about dreams, things I’ve researched about dreams, and how people have shared experiences with dreams. You probably know someone who’s said, “I’ve had this dream,” and someone else responds, “Yeah, I’ve had a similar one.” I think it’s mind-blowing.
Was the concept solely focused on dreams while we sleep, or did it go as broad as our waking dreams and aspirations?
The link is to both dreaming and imagination. Is a dream only something that happens when you’re sleeping? Is it conscious? Is it unconscious? Does the dream ever stop?
I had this weird realisation of returning to dreams. Have you ever had a dream one night and then returned to it on a different night? Did the dream ever stop? Is it the same dream? Is it a different dream that you’re just replaying? The fact that we can never quite remember or understand it is pretty interesting.
How was the experience of putting together your first solo exhibition?
It’s been an interesting process not having somebody to continually bounce ideas off creatively. That’s not to say I haven’t bounced ideas off people, but it’s a different dynamic. I’ve really enjoyed it so far.
As much as it’s my first solo project, it’s still a project where I’ve worked with a lot of really fantastic people who have come together to build something great. I’m incredibly thankful to everybody who’s helped build ‘Dream State’.
Is all art collaborative?
No matter how you look at it, it’s collaborative in the sense that even if you’re doing it by yourself, you’re still taking influences from elsewhere. If you really zoom out, art is a big collaborative effort. Everybody’s building on the shoulders of everyone else.
Has collaboration been an important part of your artistic journey?
Yeah, definitely. I think there were times I undervalued the collaboration aspect of making things, and that’s something I’m attuned to now. Teamwork makes the dream (state) work. Having different people’s points of view, input, and skills really adds to the project. And I’m not out here building every single component. All I feel I’m doing is tying a bow around it.
Collaboration happens both in the creative process of bouncing ideas off others and in the build itself. Even down to the music — I worked with Luke Million to create all the music. We did something together that’s a little outside of his signature sound. We created a really cool, textural, super-abstract sound.
There are a lot of different influences in ‘Dream State’, including artists like 404.zero and Boris Acket.
Was there a Dune influence in the exhibition?
A little bit. There wasn’t originally, but then Luke sent me the first soundtrack draft for the Sand Room, and I instantly thought, “This is pretty Dune-y.” I set out to distance it a little because it felt like low-hanging fruit, but it worked.
He did the first draft, and it didn’t change. It was the same with the other room — we didn’t even need a big discussion. I just outlined the basic vibe of each room, and he somehow pinpointed exactly what I thought each space should be.
Were there any other movie references? The big Mirror Room felt very 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Yeah, it did, hey? With the Mirror Room, I’ve done infinity rooms before. One of my first installations for Uni of Adelaide in 2017 touched on an infinity room concept, but I’d never really pushed that idea further.
I had an idea a couple of years ago to create a different-shaped infinity room, like a hexagon, and that idea just stuck with me. I really wanted to make that installation in a shipping container as a standalone thing, and I semi shoehorned it into the installation.
It feels very disorienting. You come from that dark room, and you go into the infinity room, and it’s kind of…
It’s got that kaleidoscopic effect. I kind of landed on the octagon shape mainly because of the ease of building with full sheets. That was a real design choice, but also the aesthetic came from that.
It originally wasn’t meant to be spacey, so it’s quite interesting, again, with the feedback loop of different input. It does feel 2001; it does feel kind of almost space age. It wasn’t really my intention, but then Luke made the soundtrack for it, and I thought it was “missing something.” I thought, “This is the room where the Luke Million synth lord needs to shine through.” So he put some big synth hits in there, and then it felt right.
To link back to the concept, the infinity room was imagining you’re floating or flying. It wasn’t necessarily about reflection. Interestingly enough, the Rock Room is more about reflection. The Mirror Room is kind of a nod to that feeling of flying or a mirror universe.
It felt different from other infinity rooms I’ve been in, where you’re often surrounded by your own reflection. It expanded the room, where they often contract.
That was kind of intentional. I like the effect of mirrors where you can’t see yourself. It’s something I want to keep playing with.
I always find that the more of a dream you actually remember, the less profound it can become. If you start analysing details of your dream, it sounds ridiculous and loses its magic in a way. Yet they still affect us.
Exactly. Dreams can affect you not only when you’re in them but also afterward. You can just look so deep into deeper meaning or understanding, or see it as just a thing that happens.
I love that the exhibition ends with the text, “Is it real? Did it matter?” Is there some commentary on the current state of nihilism in the world?
I think it’s the prompt, so people don’t go, “What is it trying to say?” It’s not what the installation is trying to say; it’s about what you say about your own dreams. It’s purely to prompt that internal dialogue in the viewer.
There are definitely things that are intentionally meant to feel not optimistic. The entrance, for example, is meant to feel like you’re walking into a nightmare. There’s that uncertainty with dreams, and uncertainty with your imagination as well. You can go on these trains of thought that quickly spiral out of control, and that’s kind of what the second room is. It’s that “spiral out of control,” “what is about to happen?” And that’s kind of how that room came to be. That journey into the unknown.
Each room folds onto the next in an abstract way. Elements adjust slightly throughout, and that’s how our imagination works. It just takes little bits and adds them all together. Which, on that, is kind of the intention of how the materials and the structure we used came about. Everything is repurposed, apart from the Mirror Room. We’ve recycled and reused a lot of materials from past art installations and reinvented them. That, from a sustainability perspective, is fantastic.
It definitely brought about its challenges, but it really added to the layers and the texture of the experience. If you look hard enough, there are relics of things from what they used to be.
I noticed a few things that you’d used before.
Yeah, that’s just how my brain works. If I’m dreaming or imagining things, I’m taking little bits from everywhere, and I dream super visually. I always just see my dreams as, like, “If the thing that’s happening is going on here, the peripheral is all just random stuff floating in the air.” I think that’s just a cool textural thing I wanted to add in to make it more authentic to a dream.
What do you hope people get from the exhibition?
Joy… wonder.
*laughs*
I think it’s interesting to think about. Dreams are not something people think too much about. They can provide great insight into your current state of being. What is your subconscious telling you? The only thing I really want people to get out of it is a moment of contemplation about themselves and their experience.
What is next for David Musch?
The cool thing about ‘Dream State’ for me, creatively, is that I got to explore a lot of ideas that had been on the back burner — all at once. Being able to do a multi-room experience meant I could really explore different concepts and get a feel for them. Now, I’m keen to expand on each one in different ways — either on a bigger or smaller scale. I just want to take the time to play with the ideas for a while. And I guess… just make some cool lights. *laughs* Just create more standalone artworks.
We’re titling this Cool Lights with David.
*laughing* Oh no, I’m trying to get away from being “The Lighting Guy”.
What advice do you have for anybody who wants to go in a similar direction?
My advice is always: don’t let anything stop you from what you’re trying to do. Take up every single opportunity and treat it like it’s your last. You always want to do your best work. As long as you do your best work and it gets in front of the right people, it will give you more opportunities to continue creating. At the end of the day, the work is the key. Everything else will fall into place after that. Hone your craft. Focus on the work.
‘Dream State’: The Garden of Unearthly Delights // until Sunday 23 March
Tickets // Website
David Musch: Instagram
