DREAM MACHINE

Description

The Dream Machine film is based on Dave Arnold's design copy of artist and alchemist Brion Gysin's DREAMACHINE developed in the 1950s from an original design of the 'Flicker Machine' invented by the mathematician Ian Sommerville, a close friend of William Burroughs. see Dave's art at www.arnoldart.co.uk and his music at www.deadhappyrecords.co.uk

Gysin (born 1916, died 1986) was a great friend of William Burroughs. He invented the Cut-ups technique (1959). One of his most important discoveries was the dreamachine - essentially a spinning cylinder with various holes cut in to it which - when viewed with the eyes closed - caused one to see a variety of hallucinations. I should add that this was invented under the influence of drugs (are you surprised?) If you want to try it, here is a web based dream machine - click start and close your eyes.
http://www.netliberty.net/dreamachine.html