Inspired by an extraordinary but little-known 1959 invention by artist–inventor Brion Gysin, Dreamachine was designed to be the first artwork to be experienced with your eyes closed.
His experimental homemade device used flickering light to create vivid illusions, kaleidoscopic patterns and explosions of colour in the mind of the viewer.
Over sixty years after its original invention, Dreamachine has been radically reimagined as a powerful new kind of collective experience.
Created by Collective Act, in collaboration with Turner Prize-winning artists Assemble, Grammy and Mercury nominated composer Jon Hopkins, and a team of leading technologists, scientists and philosophers, our programme invites you on a magical journey to explore the extraordinary potential of your mind.
In 2022 Dreamachine engaged over a million people across the UK in a major interdisciplinary programme that spanned the UK
In 2023 the Dreamachine will tour internationally, having attracted interest from 33 cities, in 20 countries, across 6 continents – and counting.
"If you put these machines in churches or temples, I'd go every week. This should be available for everyone, all the time."
Enter the Dreamachine where a colourful world unfolds behind your closed eyes, conjured entirely and only by white light and music, created by the power of your own brain and completely unique to yo
A large scale citizen science survey and the first major scientific study of its kind in the world, to investigate how we each experience the world in our own unique way
Created for schools and families, our interactive resources fuse science with arts and to explore the power of the human mind, our sense of self, how we see the world, and how we connect with others
"One of the most indescribably profound experiences of my life."
Dreamachine has been created by Collective Act, in collaboration with Turner Prize-winning artists Assemble, Grammy and Mercury nominated composer Jon Hopkins, and a team of leading technologists, scientists and philosophers.
We create emotionally engaged, meaningful shared experiences that bring people together and transform the way we look at the world. We champion a collaborative and multi-disciplinary approach to producing new work, creating space for taking risks and the unexpected to bring ambitious ideas to life. We have a people focussed approach: our audiences and the artists that we work with are at the heart of all that we do.
Collective Act is a creative studio, and therefore all of our team, and our collaborators, are creative and flexible in their thinking: in the way we approach challenges, imagine solutions, test new ideas, take risks and work together, with and for our audiences.
We are excited by and celebrate the alchemy of real collaboration, and we work with a rich and dynamic ecology of creatives, academics, freelancers, partners and festivals to produce high quality, powerful and participatory commissions.
Commissioned and presented as part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, Dreamachine celebrated four sell-out, 5* reviewed shows across the UK in every nation, from May – September 2022 and engaged over 1 million people.
Developed with extensive focus group research to ensure Dreamachine is as inclusive and accessible as possible, each location was carefully chosen for its unique impact on the local community.