New Immersive Art Exhibit Is To Be Viewed With Your Eyes Shut

Immersive art experiences go above and beyond to attract the gaze—but over at a new installation opening in the UK in May, eyes won’t be open.

The work Dreamachine is designed to be seen with the eyes closed. It’s based on an illuminated 1959 invention of the same name by artist Brion Gysin and Cambridge scientist Ian Sommerville that spun and flickered, projecting kaleidoscopic images past the shut eyelids of observers. The immersion is said to be able to transport participants into a trance-like state.

Gysin built the machine with the hope of replacing televisions in every home in America. He imagined that the Dreamachine would provide viewers with a personalized experience unreplicable by mass entertainment.

In the modern-day installation, visitors will explore deeper into the psyche with the addition of a soundtrack by Grammy- and Mercury-nominated composer Jon Hopkins, as well as concepts drawn from architecture, technology, music, neuroscience, and philosophy. Since the effects are perceived by the mind’s eye, every viewing is “distinctly personal.”

The new Dreamachine will come to life by way of Collective Art, a collaborative network of multidisciplinary experts including Hopkins, scientists, technologists, and philosophers. The event that Dreamachine is part of, Unboxed: Creativity in the UK, is the replacement for a £120 million (US$163 million) Brexit celebration originally planned by Theresa May's government.

The artwork will travel to London, Cardiff, Belfast, and Edinburgh from May through October 2022.

[via Artnet News and The Guardian, cover image via Dreamachine]