Dreamachine

Homemade dreamachine at rest (not spinning), lit internally.

The dreamachine (or dream machine) is a stroboscopic flicker device that produces visual stimuli. Artist Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs's "systems adviser" Ian Sommerville created the dreamachine after reading William Grey Walter's book, The Living Brain.^[1][2]

History

In the dreamachine's original form, a dreamachine is made from a cylinder with slits cut in the sides. The cylinder is placed on a record turntable and rotated at 78 or 45 revolutions per minute. A light bulb is suspended in the center of the cylinder and the rotation speed allows the light to come out from the holes at a constant frequency of between 8 and 13 pulses per second. This frequency range corresponds to alpha waves, electrical oscillations normally present in the human brain while relaxing.^[2]

The Dreamachine is the subject of the National Film Board of Canada 2008 feature documentary film FLicKeR by Nik Sheehan.^[3]

Use

A dreamachine is "viewed" with the eyes closed: the pulsating light stimulates the optical nerve and alters the brain's electrical oscillations. The user experiences increasingly bright, complex patterns of color behind their closed eyelids. The patterns become shapes and symbols, swirling around, until the user feels surrounded by colors. It is claimed that using a dreamachine allows one to enter a hypnagogic state.^[4] This experience may sometimes be quite intense, but to escape from it, one needs only to open one's eyes.^[1]

A dreamachine may be dangerous for people with photosensitive epilepsy or other nervous 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.^[5]

See also

• Jan E. Purkinje
• Mind machine

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Cecil, Paul (March 2000). "Everything is Permuted". Flickers of the Dreamachine. http://www.permuted.org.uk/dream1.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-27. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Century, Dan (December 2000). "Brion Gysin and his Wonderful Dreamachine". Legends Magazine. http://www.legendsmagazine.net/105/brion.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-27. 
3. ^ Film Web site
4. ^ Kerekes, David (2003). Headpress 25: William Burroughs & the Flicker Machine. Headpress. p. 13. ISBN 1900486261. 
5. ^ Allen, Mark (2005-01-20). "Décor by Timothy Leary". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/20/garden/20mach.html?ex=1264050000&en=2ead60550b324624&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt. Retrieved 2007-03-27. 

References

• Cecil, Paul. (2000). Flickers Of The Dreamachine. ISBN 1-899598-03-0 Download excerpts

Further reading

• McKenzie, Andrew M. (1989). "The Hafler Trio & Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth - Present Brion Gysin's Dreamachine". Belgium: KK records. http://www.discogs.com/release/582394. Retrieved 2010-10-21. 
• Cecil, Paul (1996). Flickers of the Dreamachine. ISBN 1-899598-03-0. http://www.permuted.org.uk/Flickers.htm. 
• Geiger, John (2003). The Chapel of Extreme Experience: A Short History of Stroboscopic Light and the Dream Machine. ISBN 1-932360-01-8. http://softskull.com/detailedbook.php?isbn=1-932360-01-8. 
• Vale, V (1982). Re-Search: William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Throbbing Gristle. ISBN 0-940642-05-0. http://www.researchpubs.com/Blog/?page_id=13&product_id=54. 
• Gysin, Brion (1992). Dreamachine Plans. ISBN 1-871744-50-4. http://www.permuted.org.uk/dmplan.htm. 

External links

• Dreamachine exhibition at Cabaret Voltaire (birthplace of Dada), Zürich
• Dreamachine exhibition at Freud's Dreams Museum, St. Petersburg (Russia)
• Subtleart Dr.Benways Simulacrum, Dreamachine Replica, Audiovisual installation, Collaborative project: Subtleart, New World Revolution and Kito, 2009
• (French) Interzone: Dreamachine - Machine à rêver
• FLicKeR Film Review