CREATED by Collective Act, bringing together Turner Prize-winning artists Assemble, Grammy and Mercury-nominated composer Jon Hopkins and a team of leading technologists, scientists and philosophers, Dreamachine is coming to Belfast.

Billed as  a powerful new kind of immersive experience exploring the limitless potential of the human mind, Dreamachine will be presented at Belfast’s Carlisle Memorial Church from July 25 to September 4, 2022. Free tickets will be released in June. 

 

HOLY SHOW: Carlisle Memorial
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HOLY SHOW: Carlisle Memorial

Audiences and communities in Belfast can experience Dreamachine at the deconsecrated Carlisle Memorial Church, one of the city’s most striking buildings, which has served as a gateway to North Belfast since 1875. After ceasing to be a place of worship in the 1980s, the church fell into disrepair before a major campaign in 2008 to secure its regeneration. This summer, Dreamachine will revitalise the venue and contribute to the return of the building as a vibrant and shared community space.

 

Dreamachine is inspired by an extraordinary but little-known 1959 invention by artist–inventor Brion Gysin. His experimental homemade device used flickering light to create vivid illusions, kaleidoscopic patterns and explosions of colour in the mind of the viewer. Designed to be the "first artwork to be experienced with your eyes closed," Gysin had a vision for his invention to replace the TV in every home in America. Instead of passive consumers of mass-produced media, viewers of the Dreamachine would create their own cinematic experiences. 
 
Over sixty years after its original invention, Collective Act has brought together an interdisciplinary team of leading minds in architecture, technology, music, neuroscience and philosophy to radically reimagine the Dreamachine as a powerful new kind of collective experience, bringing it to audiences for free. Every experience of the Dreamachine will be completely individual.
 

The kaleidoscopic world of the 21st-century Dreamachine is a seated experience designed to be seen with your eyes closed, that will lead audiences through an immersive environment of light and sound, as vibrant and dazzling as any digital simulation, but created by and unique to you.
 
Sarah Jones, NI Science Festival Director, said: "We are so looking forward to welcoming the Dreamachine to Belfast this summer. It highlights our distinctiveness as individuals that each person’s experience of this immersive artwork will be truly unique, while also an incredible opportunity to experience something so powerful together. It is STEAM exemplified, the space where art, science and technology collide to highlight the wonders of the human mind.