“Morfeu” is a collective created by friends as part of our Communication Design degree’s final project. Following the 50 years’ celebrations of the dictatorship’s fall in Portugal, we were given the challenge of reflecting upon the fragility of our freedom today, about how and why it’s easily taken for granted. Inspired by Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle and The Situationists, our group sought to analyse and deconstruct concepts such as conformism, alienation and interpassivity, as well as the existential tiredness that prevails in our society, from social media’s constant stimuli.
From here, we created “Morfeu” and its manifesto. Articulating situationist and original methods, we called for the abandonment of the “dream” by which we live, that is nothing but a permanent and alienating sleep. We named the collective after the god of sleep, Morpheus, who mutated in order to infiltrate people’s dreams. This was our mission: to bridge the gap between dream and reality, and wake up.
In the project’s first phase – communication and promotion – the collective’s Instagram was created, as a way of publishing the manifesto and exploring it visually. The handmade lettering and more abstract layouts are influenced by the Situationists’ aesthetic and graphic expressions. From there, posters were made and posts were shared promoting Morfeu’s first activity, “Anestesia Geral”, that consisted of a short film’s screening, followed by a talk. For this short film, three creatures were created, personifying interpassivity, alienation and existential fatigue. They remain present throughout Morfeu’s activities – puppets without names, mere participants in a show that transcends them.
In the project’s last phase – documentation – the development of a multivolume production manual took place, consolidating Morfeu’s journey. It consisted of four volumes: Act I, Act II, Act III and Act IV. rn
