We, as beings who dream, have all been there — you wake from a vivid dream and scramble to jot down the details before they fade from your memory forever. Or maybe it vanishes before you have a chance to write it down, leaving you with the mere impression of a feeling grounded in nothing. Bummer.
Well, thanks to Dutch design studio Modem’s new Dream Recorder, an AI-powered “portal to your subconscious” that turns dreams into short movies, that no longer needs to be the case.
How it works
For an AI-enabled device, it’s actually quite simple.
To use it, you simply press the record button and narrate your dream aloud in your preferred language. The device then generates a short reel based on your description in a preset animated style of your choosing.
That’s it — no app, no notifications, nothing.
The coolest thing about Dream Recorder, though, isn’t its functionality but the philosophy behind it.
Not your regular AI company
Designed without any hard lines and with limited connectivity, it’s meant to fade into the background and provide a sense of calm.
And like Modem’s other projects, it’s fully open-source, meaning Modem doesn’t actually sell the device but has shared the code and hardware documentation on GitHub, so anyone can 3D-print the body, buy the other little bits, and assemble it themselves.
The goal, Modem co-founder Astin le Clerq told Dezeen, is to “democratise access to these technologies and offer a tangible alternative to the dominant, corporate-led vision of AI.”
In a landscape dominated by profit-driven tech giants, Modem might be the AI company we need — and yet, it’s intentionally set an operational “end date” of 2030 for itself.