Dreamachine

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Replica of a Dreamachine.

A dreamachine or dream machine is a lamp that uses the stroboscopic effect to visually stimulate the brain. The apparatus was designed by beatnik artists Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville in the late 1950s . The idea for this is based on a visual phenomenon and reading the book The Living Brain by neurophysiologist and robot researcher William Gray Walter . In 1961, the Dreamachine was patented as a "process and device for generating artistic sensations".

In its original form, the Dreamachine consists of a cylinder with slots on the side. This is placed on a record player and made to rotate at 45 or 78 revolutions per minute. An incandescent lamp is located in the cylinder as a light source. A Dreamachine is usually "viewed" with the eyes closed, since the pulsating light stimulates the optic nerve through the closed eyelids and the action potential of the nerves is supposed to promote the generation of alpha waves (8–12 Hz ) in the brain (cf. Mindmachine ). The light reflections can be associated with swirling patterns, shadows or symbols and ultimately lead to a semi- hypnotic state or a kind of trance . The apparatus can have a certain mind-expanding effect with the additional consumption of stimulants such as psychotropic substances . Under the influence of opiates , the carousel of lights is supposed to come to a standstill. In some people, the Dreamachine does not produce any sensation; in people with a disposition to photosensitive epilepsy , it can even trigger a seizure.

history

Brion Gysin had a kind of hallucination in 1958 during a bus trip to Marseille , which was caused by the play of lights of the setting sun on an avenue with trees. He noted about the experience in his diary:

“Had a transcendental storm of color visions today in the bus going to Marseilles. We ran through a long avenue of trees and I closed my eyes against the setting sun. An overwhelming flood of intensely bright colors exploded behind my eyelids: a multidimensional kaleidoscope whirling out through space. I was swept out of time. I was out in a world of infinite number. The vision stopped abruptly as we left the trees. What that a vision? What happened to me? "

“Today on the bus to Marseille I had a transcendental storm of colorful visions. We were driving down a long tree-lined avenue and I had my eyes closed to the light of the setting sun. An overwhelming flood of intense bright colors exploded behind my eyelids: a multidimensional kaleidoscope swirled through the room. I was out of time. I was in a world of infinite size. The vision ended abruptly when we left the trees. Was that a vision? What happened to me? "

- Brion Gysin, diary entry from December 21, 1958

Some time later, Gysin found an explanation for the " flicker " phenomenon in William Gray Walter's book The Living Brain , in which the light irritates the visual perception in fractions of a second . At Cambridge , Gysin told his friend and math student Ian Sommerville, who also knew the book, about it. Sommerville set about repeating the phenomenon scientifically. In a letter to Gysin in February 1959, he announced that he had built a simple "flicker machine" consisting of a cardboard cylinder rotating around a light source on a record player at 78 revolutions per minute. Ian Sommerville wrote:

“You look at it with eyes shut and the flicker plays over your eyelids. Visions start with a kaleidoscope of colors on a plane in front of the eyes and gradually become more complex and beautiful […] after a while the visions were permanently behind my eyes and I was in the middle of the whole scene […] Afterwards I found that my perception of the world around me had increased notably. "

“You look at it with your eyes closed and the flicker plays over your eyelids. Visions begin with a kaleidoscope of colors on a surface in front of your eyes, and gradually everything becomes more complex and beautiful [...] after a while the visions are constant behind my eyes, and I am in the middle of the whole scene [...] Afterwards I found that my perception of the world around me has increased significantly. "

- Ian Sommerville

In the following years Brion Gysin refined the invention. He provided the cylinder with different patterns, added a second, inner cylinder and tried out the effect of different rotation speeds. On November 18, 1961, Gysin had the Dreamachine patented as "procedure and apparatus for the production of artistic sensations" (PV 868281).

aftermath

The invention quickly had an aftereffect in literature, music, and pop culture. For example, William S. Burroughs , a friend of Gysin and Sommerville and also a resident of the legendary Beat Hotel in Paris, was inspired by the apparatus while writing using the cut-up technique developed by Gysin . In the USA, the filmmaker Jonas Mekas became aware of the Dreamachine and published an article about it in the Village Voice in February 1964 . The principle of stimulating light projection was used at fast underground filmmakers and organizers of the emerging light shows and multimedia events. For example in the Exploding Plastic Inevitable organized by Andy Warhol or in the black and white “Flicker” film by experimental filmmaker Tony Conrad. When editing the film, Conrad spent 18 months working on what he thought was an “optimal” sequence of light pulses. Other subculture artists of the 1960s who were connected to the beat generation and who propagated the “flicker machine” were the filmmaker Piero Heliczer and the former Velvet Underground drummer Angus MacLise . In the 1980s, the musician and performance artist Genesis P-Orridge resorted to Gysin's ideas and his Dreamachine. The English concept art music project Hafler Trio recorded a soundtrack for the Dreamachine in 1989 together with Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (see Psychic TV ) and also sold replicas of the device with a booklet.

Modern variants

In the esoteric sector in particular , devices are offered as relaxation lamps and hypnosis goggles, but also as supporting and brain- stimulating learning aids for the controversial "learning while sleeping", which want to make use of the effect discovered by Gysin. In Internet computerized Dream Machines are available as freeware to find and browser animations.

literature

  • Paul Cecil: Flickers Of The Dreamachine (the definitive headbook) . Codex 1996, ISBN 1-899598-03-0 .
  • John Geiger: Nothing is True - Everything is Permitted: The Life of Brion Gysin . Disinformation Company, 2005, ISBN 1-932857-12-5 .
  • William Gray Walter: The Living Brain . (1953), Penguin, London, 1967; German The living brain in Kiepenheuer & Witsch 1961 and Droemer / Knaur 1963 (without ISBN).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dreamachine. Retrieved September 21, 2008 .
  2. ↑ The Dreamachine by Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville. Retrieved September 19, 2008 .
  3. ↑ a b Uwe Husslein: Pop goes art. Andy Warhol & Velvet Underground . Institute for Pop Culture, Wuppertal 1990, pp. 18–21
  4. ↑ Simply Superior - Audio Production Portfolio. Simply Superior, accessed September 15, 2010 .