Immersive Environment Award Winner 2023

Dreamachine - Collective Act (United Kingdom)

Artwork description

Dreamachine is an immersive experience designed to take audiences on a magical journey into their own minds. In a unique collaboration, our award winning interdisciplinary team of artists, composers, technologists, scientists and philosophers set out to explore and chart our inner worlds, with the aim of sparking insight, reflection and curiosity.

Dreamachine is inspired by a 1959 invention by Brion Gysin that used flickering light to create vivid illusions and explosions of colour in the mind of the viewer. Gysin had a pioneering vision for his invention to replace the television in every home in America: instead of passive consumers of mass-produced media, viewers of the Dreamachine would create their own cinematic experiences. He died before his vision could be realised, but the idea of using technology to reconnect us with our inner selves remains just as radical, and relevant, today.

Over sixty years after its original invention, Dreamachine has been radically reimagined as a powerful new kind of collective experience. Conjured entirely by light and music, this extraordinary multisensory journey combines flickering light with 360 degree spatial sound, providing an entirely new way to disconnect from everyday life, and reconnect with both yourself, and others. As the experience begins, a colourful, kaleidoscopic world will unfold behind your closed eyes, created by the power of your own the brain and completely personal to you.

Partners and collaborators

Creative Team
Jennifer Crook, Director
Assemble, Spatial Designers
Jon Hopkins, Composer
Dev Joshi, Technical Director
Chris Shutt, Sound Designer
Holition, Creative Technology Studio
Professor Anil Seth, Scientist
Dr David Schwartzman, Scientist
Professor Fiona Macpherson, Philosopher
A New Direction, Education Partner with Studio ZNA, Lighting Designer