From May to September 2022, Dreamachine celebrated four sold-out, 5* reviewed shows, transforming unexpected dormant venues - a market, a temple, a church and an ice rink - into new public spaces for shared reflection.
Unlike many immersive works of scale or spectacle, the kaleidoscopic world created by the Dreamachine comes from within. Like a secular temple, the experience is held collectively in the round, within a monolithic timber structure designed by Assemble. As you take a seat within the circle and close your eyes, flickering white light and 360-degree spatial sound weave seamlessly together to generate a luminous and technicolour internal universe - all created by the power of your own brain and completely unique to you.
Free, accessible and open to all, Dreamachine is the first project in the world to explore the phenomenon of stroboscopically-induced visual stimulation on such a scale, offering tens of thousands of participants an insight into the everyday miracle of consciousness. Designed to create emotional connection, with creative reflection tools for writing, drawing, reading and conversation, many visitors describe profound responses. Over 20,000 people have created illustrations of their experience, producing one of the largest collections of publicly generated artworks in the world.
Some blind and partially sighted participants have even described seeing colour for the first time.
As a temporary installation, Dreamachine is an innovative example of meanwhile use, breathing new life into each venue it has visited, reconnecting audiences to forgotten, derelict architectural gems - including the 1897 Gothic Revival-era Carlisle Memorial Church in Belfast, and the 1936 art-deco Woolwich Public Market in London.
Reaching over a million people so far, Dreamachine will now tour internationally - engaging audiences across ages, boundaries, countries and cultures as active collaborators in creating a new shared library of human experience.
Dreamachine was originally commissioned for Unboxed: Creativity in the UK with funding from UK Government, and with support from EventScotland and the Scottish Government, Creative Wales and the Welsh Government, Belfast City Council and the Northern Ireland Executive.