Reevaluate your life. Do you have friends and family who care about you? Have you accomplished the goals you set out for yourself? Do you have a legacy that will be remembered? Only two things are certain in life and death is the common denominator we all share. Now imagine yourself at the peak of your existence, lying in the middle of a small living room. You are cut off from the world and everyone you know for the next three years. Things continue without you. The sun rises and sets. The seasons change. People age. And yet, you are motionless and still. No comes looking for you. No one comes pounding at your door. You are alone. For three years. How can this be?
Dreams of a Life, a new documentary by filmmaker Carol Morley, examines the life and mysterious death of Joyce Vincent, a thirty-eight year old aspiring singer who died alone in her bedsit and was left to decompose for three years. Neighbors, friends, and family never came looking for her or questioned her whereabouts. It was not until her rent was so massively overdue that bailiffs came charging at her door to then find her skeletal remains lighted by the flickering screen of the television set. Coroners could only identify Vincent by comparing dental records to a smiling photograph and the authorities hypothesized she had been dead for three years according to expiration dates on perishable food. The cause of her death remains unresolved.
To accompany the release of the film, design studio Hide & Seek created the sister site, Dreams of Your Life. It is an eerily dark game that requires the participant to answer a series of questions and ultimately second guess their true place in the world. As one plays the game, the scenery begins to slowly evolve with the passing of time. Flowers wither and fall apart. The white curtains turn black along the edges from changing weather creeping through the opened window. A photograph taped to the wall begins to curl and lands on the windowsill. No one comes to grab the keys off the tabletop or to sweep up the dead petals from alongside the glass container. Everything remains the same and yet it does not. It is a painful reminder that as your time fades and the memory of you that lingers in people’s minds begins to dissipate, everything else in the world will continue. Everything else lives on.
