André Breton and his associates opened the 'Bureau de Recherches Surréalistes' (Bureau of Surrealist Research) at 15 Rue de Grenelle in Paris. The office operated as a public laboratory dedicated to gathering reports, testimonies, and physical evidence related to involuntary psychological phenomena, including dreams, automatic writing, and strange coincidences. Anyone could walk off the street to log their nightmares, contributing to an extensive archive intended to prove the absolute reality of the subconscious over waking life.

The Bureau formalized the collective study of the subconscious, transforming poetry from an individual lyric pursuit into a collaborative scientific research project. It led directly to the publication of early surrealist journals, setting a precedent for using raw, unedited dream transcriptions as legitimate public poetic manifestos.