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Dreamachine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Dream machine" redirects here. For other uses, seeDream Machine (disambiguation).
This article is about the stroboscopic device. For the album by John Zorn, seeDreamachines.For the psychedelic rock band, seeMatthew Melton.
William S. BurroughsandDavid Woodardwith aBrion GysinDreamachine (1997)[1]: 142–146 

TheDreamachine(a contraction ofDream Machine), invented in 1959 byBrion GysinandIan Sommerville,is astroboscopicflickeringlight artdevice that produceseideticvisual stimuli.

Description[edit]

In its original form, a Dreamachine is a work oflight artmade from a cylinder with regularly spaced shapes cut out of its sides. The cylinder is then placed on arecord turntableand rotated, depending on the scale, at either 78 or 45revolutions per minute.A light bulb is suspended in the center of the cylinder with the rotation speed making light emanate from the holes at a consistently pulsating frequency range of 8–13 flickers per second. It is meant to be looked at through closed eyelids, upon which movingyantra-like mandala visual patterns emerge, and anAlpha wavemental state is induced. The frequency of the pulsations corresponds to the electricaloscillationsnormally present in the human brain whilerela xing.In 1996, theLos Angeles TimesdeemedDavid Woodard's iteration of the Dreamachine "the most interesting object" in Burroughs' major visual retrospectivePorts of EntryatLACMA.[2][3]In a 2019 critical study,Raj Chandarlapaty,a scholar of theBeat movement,revisits and examines Woodard's "idea-shattering" approach to the Dreamachine.[1]

The Dreamachine is the subject of theNational Film Board of Canada2008 feature documentary filmFLicKeR,byNik Sheehan.[4]

The same flickering light effect is used in modern electronic devices known asmind machines.

Use[edit]

Man during a Dreamachine session

A Dreamachine is "viewed" with the eyes closed: the pulsating light stimulates theoptic nerveand thus alters the brain's electrical oscillations. As users adjust to the experience, they see increasingly complex animatedyantra-like patterns of color behind their closed eyelids (similar effects may be seen when travelling as a passenger in a car or bus; close your eyes as the vehicle passes through the flickering shadows cast by regularly spaced roadside trees, streetlights or tunnel striplights—these were thehypnagogiceffects Brion Gysin said he sought to recreate with the device). It is claimed that by using a Dreamachine meditatively, users enter anAlpha wave,orhypnagogic state.[5]This experience may sometimes be quite intense, but to escape from it, one needs only to open one's eyes.[6] The Dreamachine may be dangerous for persons withphotosensitive epilepsyor othernervous disorders.

It is thought that one out of 10,000 adults will experience a seizure while viewing the device; about twice as many children will have a similar ill effect.[7]

Unboxed[edit]

The 2022Unboxed: Creativity in the UKtouring festival included a Dreamachine project involving a series of microcontroller-controlled lights rather than a rotating cylinder, and a surround-sound soundtrack byJon Hopkins.The experience was scaled up to use an octagonal facility two storeys high with a capacity of about 20 people at once in a circular seating arrangement.[8]It was praised by a reviewer inThe Guardianas "as close to state-funded psychedelic drugs as you can get".[9]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^abChandarlapaty, R., "Woodard and Renewed Intellectual Possibilities", inSeeing the Beat Generation(Jefferson, NC:McFarland & Company,2019),pp. 142–146.
  2. ^Knight, C.,"The Art of Randomness",Los Angeles Times,August 1, 1996.Archived2022-03-28 at theWayback Machine.
  3. ^Bolles, D.,"Dream Weaver",LA Weekly,July 26–August 1, 1996.
  4. ^"Flicker Movie".Archivedfrom the original on 2022-04-03.Retrieved2022-05-22.
  5. ^Kerekes, David (2003).Headpress 25: William Burroughs & the Flicker Machine.Headpress. p.13.ISBN1-900486-26-1.
  6. ^Cecil, Paul (March 2000)."Everything is Permuted".Flickers of the Dreamachine.Archivedfrom the original on 2007-04-15.Retrieved2007-03-27.
  7. ^Allen, Mark (January 20, 2005)."Décor by Timothy Leary".The New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on 2011-08-26.Retrieved2007-03-27..
  8. ^Park, William (6 October 2022)."The life-changing effects of hallucinations".BBC.
  9. ^Jones, Jonathan (2022-05-09)."Dreamachine review – as close to state-funded psychedelic drugs as you can get".The Guardian.Retrieved2022-05-23.

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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