Introspective Dreams is a highly anticipated video installation of AI-driven sonic art, based off of music written in Muse Code™. Muse Code™ is a unique, bidirectional system of musical cryptography invented by Black/African-American composer, multidisciplinary artist, and Newlab Artist-in-Residence Bryan A. Crumpler.

In the development of this work, Mr. Crumpler, Founder of Ahmadeus Beaux-Arts and c/o 2001 Morehead-Cain Scholar, was recognized for his work in musical cryptography and the COVID Music Memorial, applying his proprietary system to create music from the names of those who died early in the COVID-19 pandemic. He is one of 3,000 New York City-based artists to receive $5,000 through the City Artist Corps Grants program, presented by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), with support from the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) as well as Queens Theatre.

Over the course of three award cycles, more than 3,000 artists received $5,000 grants to engage the public with artist activities across New York City’s five boroughs this summer and fall. Artists were permitted to use the grant to create new work or phase of a work, or restage preexisting creative activities across any discipline.

In this phase of Mr. Crumpler's work, he held a fall exhibition themed "Real Muses of New York City" to publicly screen this music video album in partnership with Newlab artists in residence and member companies with arts-related outcomes. Installations were also done by Terreform One, Eric Forman, Jason Krugman, Matt Tyson / Modos, and Ash Seth; with special guest performances by singer/songwriter DRAD3; and music featured from the COVID Music Memorial.

Members of the public can participate in City Artist Corps Grants programming by following the hashtag #CityArtistCorps on social media.

The City Artist Corps Grant program was launched in June 2021 by NYFA and DCLA with support from the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) as well as Queens Theatre. The program is funded by the $25 million New York City Artist Corps recovery initiative announced by Mayor de Blasio and DCLA earlier this year. The grants are intended to support NYC-based working artists who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.