Dreamachine

[Keebleman]

https://dreamachine.world/

Art installation-cum-psychedelic experience without the drugs, opening in Woolwich shortly, followed by Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast.  I've had a go already and it's definitely worth the price - cos it's free - but it's also worth the time and trouble too.  I didn't find the experience in any way emotionally stirring, but it is surprising how intense and varied the visuals are.

[bakabaka]

Invented by the brilliant Brion Gysin in 1959, this is hopefully as wonderful as all his other work. But it's not coming anywhere here because it's ALL CAPITALS. BASTARDS!

[Zero Gravitas]

So this new version "updated for a our age" is more than a tube with holes spinning around balanced on a record player with a light bulb suspended in the middle then?

[bushwick]

I remember trying to make one of these things after reading a Burroughs/Gysin thing about them in occulture magazine Rapid Eye 30-some years ago, during teenage Psychic TV phase. Think I gave up in the end - but if you walk past a fence with the sun behind it and close your eyes you get a similar effect. You could get acid for 3 quid back then anyway.

[Keebleman]

So this new version "updated for a our age" is more than a tube with holes spinning around balanced on a record player with a light bulb suspended in the middle then?

Yeah.  There are 32 chairs, reclined to about 30 degrees off the horizontal, around the perimeter of the space, all facing in. Each has its own speakers playing music specially composed by Jon Hopkins.  You will get a short spiel about the event from one of the staff, and then there is a taster session, three minutes in which you lie back, listen to the music and see lots of weird stuff.  If you can make it through the taster session without being freaked out then you should be ok for the main thing, which follows and lasts around 20 minutes.  Eye masks are provided in case you want to temporarily turn it off, or of course you can get up and leave.

After it's over you are taken to the Reflection Zone, where you process the experience.  There are crayons and pastels and drawing paper, ipads programmed to allow you to try and recreate the images you saw, and screens showing images of the pictures that previous visitors have created.  People can stay here as long as they like, but there are no refreshments or anything so it's assumed that most will hang around for 30 to 45 mins or so.

For me there wasn't a great deal to process.  I enjoyed it and would like to do it again, but emotion didn't really come into it, except for an occasional sense of claustrophobia which I could have immediately negated, had I chosen, by lowering the eye mask.  But some people have had strong emotions or memories dredged up by the experience, and so there are people on hand trained in mental health first aid to help if needed.

[JesusAndYourBush]

I read an article a few years ago that said Kurt Cobain had one and had been viewing it for 24 hours continuously just before he shot himself.

[Keebleman]

If he'd only done it for 24 minutes and then drawn some pictures with crayon he'd still be with us.  And probably still with Courtney Love too, so swings and roundabouts.

[badaids]

Isn't this the thing that Pete Sonic Boom Kember used to inspire his most monged out music?

[Keebleman]

Guardian guy liked it:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/may/09/dreamachine-review-as-close-to-state-funded-psychedelic-drugs-as-you-can-get

Had my second go today.  I was much more relaxed and so enjoyed it more, but I was disappointed that what I saw was all pretty similar to what I saw the first time round.

[Famous Mortimer]

Isn't this the thing that Pete Sonic Boom Kember used to inspire his most monged out music?

The front cover of "Spectrum" could be rotated about to create all patterns and that, too. "Optikinetic", apparently.

[badaids]

The front cover of "Spectrum" could be rotated about to create all patterns and that, too. "Optikinetic", apparently.

Yeah got that record.  For £3 in Norwich market back when no one gied a shit about vinyl.  The spinny fing is wicked.

[Memorex MP3]

tickets being free plus the unclear website is a disaster. Took me a while to realise "limited availability" just mean "only wheelchair seats remaining". With tickets being free I wound up booking one time without really thinking about it and now realise I can't go at that time, so I just booked a different time instead; an't seem to cancel my original booking though so I guess I've just wasted a spot and there's zero fiscal incentive to make the effort to make that spot available.

[Keebleman]

Because it's free I think that there will almost always be places available at any given show.  Just ask the FoH staff at the scheduled start time if anyone hasn't turned up and, provided you've completed the health screening form, you can have their place.  If not then mooch around enjoying the sights and sounds of Woolwich for 40 mins or so before trying again.