We visit the dream machine

[imomus]

At a dinner party on Sunday at Schloss Wiesenburg celebrating David Woodard's 44th birthday the composer demonstrated a dream machine he'd built. It was the first time Hisae and I had tried one of the devices -- essentially a record turntable rotating a slatted shade to create light-bursts at between 8 and 13 pulses a second. This frequency stimulates alpha waves and, viewed through closed eyes, creates an impression of seething colours and patterns -- a "drugless high".

"The first exposure was the biggest surprise, a fresh experience," Hisae told me. "The more you do it the less sensitive you get. The first time I didn't know what to do, the second time David introduced it. You have to get as close as possible and close eyes and he was asking me after a few minutes what colour... he was giving examples of the colours you would see, green and blue, but I said "Oh no, but I see the combination of white and red!" and he said "Oh, but that's a very good combination!" Afterwards I felt very stable, or calmed down. But I was very scared of this, when I first went there I thought of what happened with Pokemon, lots of children got very sick."

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Hisae is referring to this episode of Pokemon (don't watch it, obviously, if you're subject to epileptic reactions). And indeed one in 10,000 adults does experience a seizure while viewing the dream machine, and one in 5000 children.

Although she enjoyed the Dream Machine -- "It's very soft happiness sitting there!" -- the experience reminded Hisae of something much less pleasant: "When I went to see Colleen and someone slipped me a dating drug, and I saw so many geometric patterns which I didn't want to see, it was very similar. But this dating drug thing also made me sweaty and stopped my blood circulating properly, and I couldn't stand up, so it's different, but what I saw is very similar... But the second time I tried the dream machine I thought I could go on forever."

Created in 1958 by artist Brion Gysin and scientist Ian Sommerville (inspired by William Grey Walter's book The Living Brain), the Dream Machine seems to have made Kurt Cobain want to go on forever -- or possibly die -- too. David Woodard started building and selling dream machines for $145 a piece (the price for the machines he builds now is much higher: around €10,000. he tells me) after corresponding with William Burroughs. Woodard met Cobain at a party in 1993. The musician ordered a dream machine and reportedly stared into it for 72 hours continuously shortly before his death. Asked by the High Times whether he thought the machine had contributed to Cobain's suicide, Woodard said yes. When Burroughs died in 1997, Woodard made a dream machine "of Tupinamba-harvested ermine, cocobolo and copper" for the writer's funeral.

FLicKeR is a new National Film Board of Canada documentary about the Dream Machine by Nik Sheehan featuring interviews with Burroughs, Marianne Faithful, Genesis P-Orridge, John Giorno, Iggy Pop and Kenneth Anger. You can see a preview here.

I personally didn't get much out of the dream machine, probably because I was too busy filming other people experiencing it to immerse myself for long enough in the rhythms. I'm generally rather hypno (and drug) resistant. After all, if hypnotism really worked, hypnotists would rule the world, and they patently don't -- if they did, they'd hardly bother putting on corny magic shows in provincial theatres, would they?

Of course, it's possible that they (the real hypnotists, not those frauds in theatres) do rule the world, and have simply hypnotised us not to notice. And maybe they're using the regular rising and setting of the sun and the moon as an ultra-slow motion dream machine. Why not?

Comments

[st-ranger.livejournal.com]

Government and religion are just ancient forms of hypnosis really, aren't they? "WE ARE RIGHT WE ARE RIGHT WE ARE RIGHT..." ad nauseam.

[kementari2.livejournal.com]

Well, so are science and your comment and my comment, in the same limited way of summing them up. One could at least argue it has some advantages over "WE ARE WRONG WE ARE WRONG WE ARE WRONG..." ad nauseam.

[st-ranger.livejournal.com]

I kinda prefer "WE ARE RIGHT IN SOME SENSE, WRONG IN SOME SENSE, MEANINGLESS IN SOME SENSE, RIGHT AND WRONG IN SOME SENSE, RIGHT AND MEANINGLESS IN SOME SENSE, WRONG AND MEANINGLESS IN SOME SENSE, AND RIGHT, WRONG, AND MEANINGLESS IN SOME SENSE!" times Infinity.

Covers all bases, plus seems to match up to reality a little better.

[kementari2.livejournal.com]

Yes. :) That's why I said "in the same limited way of summing them up." I'd like to think that any institutions, cultures, or individual thinkers worth their salt would all understand what you've just said as a principle of human nature before coming to too many additional conclusions.

[qscrisp.livejournal.com]

No, 'we are wrong' is better.

[(Anonymous)]

This reminds me of a piece i wrote about i-doser

http://www.i-doser.com/

[silenceinspades.livejournal.com]

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/godownmatthew/1440204382/)

i have a feeling that with cobain's suicide, the heroin addiction was probably more to blame than the dream machine.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

Shhh, don't tell Woodard that.

[bugpowered.livejournal.com]

i have a feeling that with cobain's suicide, the heroin addiction was probably more to blame than the dream machine.

Heroin addicts usually overdose, they don't take their heads of with shotguns.

[silenceinspades.livejournal.com]

i'm willing to bet that more people have shot themselves after doing heroin than looking at a dream machine. actually i'm willing to bet that more people have killed themselves after being in rock bands from the 90s than having used a dream machine.

[obliterati.livejournal.com]

From the brainwashed.com link:

Surprisingly, Woodard admits that the Dream Machine may have compounded Cobain's problems. "If anything," he says, "the Dream Machine helped him to see that he was beginning to fall apart as a cultural figure. He felt like Andy Warhol, Wagner and Satan rolled up into one. He was in a very special place which invited timely suicide. It seemed like it was the perfect decision."

I am totally picturing Satan all aghast being lumped in with Wagner. :)

[niddrie-edge.livejournal.com]

I used to think the very same thing about magicians or those who practice magick.

[lilchiva.livejournal.com]

ouch

poof!

[niddrie-edge.livejournal.com]

Heh! You know me by now.
Easy come, easy go!

the Dream Machine

[pay-option07.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming that the visual cortical stimulation that created your happiness is similar to meta-sound used for the same purpose. Maybe you could collaborate with the Doc on sound and sight happiness.
Burroughs's death might be a connection to withdrawal from medications that help trigger seizures like the Pokeman that kicks butt.

[microworlds.livejournal.com]

I never thought I would discuss Pokemon episodes here, but here we go! I remember that banned episode with the seizure inducing animation, I watched it when it first was uploaded to the internet (holy crap, was this really 10 years ago?), so dial-up slowed it down quite considerably. I don't want to risk watching it again, I don't want to see if faster internet will make me sick. My brother has a form of epilepsy, and is also obsessed with Pokemon. I'm not showing him that episode obviously.

There was another banned episode that amuses me because the Pokemon Jynx (http://faqsmedia.ign.com/faqs/image/ani124.gif) supposedly looked like a stereotypical black person. So in every episode that includes Jynx, she's colored purple.

[microworlds.livejournal.com]

*stereotypical black racist drawing, I mean

Hypnotism works...

[mikerm.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

"After all, if hypnotism really worked, hypnotists would rule the world..."

You mean, "If hypnotism was a magic means of making anyone do anything you like."

Hypnotism works, it just doesn't work like that.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Well, the well-dressed Germans are making strange devices, and the birds are singing in the trees. All is right in the world.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Germans? Do you mean Woodard? He's from California, and once shared a flat with your friend Doran Wittelsbach! (http://imomus.livejournal.com/183446.html)

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know--I was just poking some fun. For some reason he has a distinctly early 20C Germanic look about him in that photo.

[st-ranger.livejournal.com]

If we were all hypnotized, would we gnow it? Perhaps the hypnotists really do control the world.

radiant, in any case

[(Anonymous)]

(Look into my eyes, don’t look around the eyes, right into my eyes—1-2-3-you’re back in the room.)

Dear Nick, Thanks for your insightful text — my own experience with the Dreamachine that night was slightly different (http://walloftime.net/2008/04/with-prisoned-radiance-of-electric.html), maybe it falls somewhere between the “could/should go on forever” and your own more detached, meta-thought perspective. Jonas

(Look into my eyes, don’t look around the eyes, right into my eyes—1-2-3-you’re back in the room.)

Re: radiant, in any case

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Ah, a very interesting counterpoint (http://walloftime.net/2008/04/with-prisoned-radiance-of-electric.html), Jonas, thanks! I went to Burroughs and Gysin, rather too obviously -- I like how you went, instead, to cicadas and Marinetti!

They can build the dream machine, but only we can build the dreams.

Re: radiant, in any case

[niddrie-edge.livejournal.com]

I should have known cicadas would have some part in all this. Slowing down insects in a time stretcher. Momus' dinner table gives us all something to go home with.

DOUCHEWATCH: Art Edition

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

"David Woodard, who started building and selling dream machines for $145 a piece after corresponding with William Burroughs, met Cobain at a party in 1993. The musician ordered a dream machine and reportedly stared into it for 72 hours continuously shortly before his death. Asked by the High Times whether he thought the machine had contributed to Cobain's suicide, Woodard said:

"It's highly unlikely, and it would be irresponsible and tasteless of me to suggest otherwise. There's no scientifically sound reason why this sculpture would contribute to someone taking their life, and if I had any reason to believe otherwise, I would stop selling them immediately yes, I believe my dream machine contributed to his suicide, thus ensuring my place in rock-history... in my own mind. I'll be dining out on this anecdote for years! Would you like it buy a Dream Machine? It's only $145. And it killed Kurt Cobain. Incredible huh?"

Re: DOUCHEWATCH: Art Edition

[imomus.livejournal.com]

You have to understand that David has a slightly different attitude to death to your average person. This is one reason he's such a highly original person.

Reaching for terms like "douche" when confronted by a non-conventional attitude to death is a bit like reaching for words like "tragic". I mean, I did it last week describing Angus Fairhurst's "tragically untimely" demise, but it's pretty stale and formulaic, isn't it? In the words of Paul Arden (your favourite philosopher, ha!): "The problem with making sensible decisions is that so is everyone else." You could say that applies to "sympathetic declarations" too.

And remember how even his wife called Kurt an "asshole" after he shot his head off? She could have said "This is a tragedy" -- and sounded like a politician.

Re: DOUCHEWATCH: Art Edition

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

Cobain's wife calling him an asshole was the result of an emotional outburst at the death of someone she loved.

Woodard claiming his art contributed to Cobains death is Woodard cashing in on a rockstar's death at the very worst, or Woodard being so far up his own backside he actually believes without a shred of evidence, scientific or otherwise, that his "Dream machine" was part of the reason Cobain killed himself at the very least.

What does Woodard believe exactly? That the spinny colours helped to prompt Kurt to kill himself?

We aren't going to agree on this, because you've been suckered into the cult of personality "this is art baby" aspect of this guy's persona. Enjoy your trendy snake-oil.

Re: DOUCHEWATCH: Art Edition

[(Anonymous)]

i have to say, kumakouji, that i've been reading your thoughtful banter with momus for about a year now, and it's always insightful, intelligent, humorously provocative.

but that hoodie, man, is teh terrible.

Re: DOUCHEWATCH: Art Edition

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

Dude, everyone I've ever met has loved this jacket. I'm serious. This isnt a hoody, it's a deer hunting jacket I bought in the lake district (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_District).



See the reed patterns? I've never actually been hunting, but it makes me feel manly wearing it like the horrible urban fraud that I am. It's the only remotely ornate and showy item of clothing I own. Allow me this one thing and I'll happily die in a polo-shirt for you.

Re: DOUCHEWATCH: Art Edition

[(Anonymous)]

hahah. i thought it was one of those "paint splatter" designs from the 80s!

Re: DOUCHEWATCH: Art Edition

[robotmummies.livejournal.com]

The product line comes with the full cooperation of Courtney Love, who initially green-lighted the project, as well as a previous 2007 auction of the dead rock star’s memorabilia “to make a lot of money.”

Re: DOUCHEWATCH: Art Edition

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

Well, at least she's not claiming her Kurt Cobain tribute Converse's have magical powers, can heal the blind or are capable of other dubious miraculous acts.

I remember watching a documentary about Courtney love a few years ago that looked at her life as a Buddhist -- She recently joined the Japanese Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist sect.

She basically just believes that if she sits infront of a statue of Buddha and prays really hard she'll get what she wants.



She should get herself a Dream Machine while shes at it. only $145!

Re: DOUCHEWATCH: Art Edition

[robotmummies.livejournal.com]

there's probably a lot to be made off of dead idols; courtney's in a position where she can be more brazen about her intent i suppose. the dream machine explanation sounds kinda similar to the backwards judas priest records explanations of suicide that were so popular in the 80's. but who can delineate the exact properties of visceral sensations? i think it would be interesting if time travelers had killed kurt cobain to stimulate the economy of the future, or something. but that idea is like hypnotists ruling the world, it's too far-fetched to hold up to reasonability.

Some guys have all the luck.

[thomascott.livejournal.com]

If David Woodard can sell kaleidoscopes for $145-00 a pop then kudos to him.
There is nothing more noble than separating sucker from schilling.
The Cobain connection is good endorsement, you couldn't get a higher profile simultaneous popular culture/fringe culture suicide if you tried.
Fortunate.

lawdy.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

Don't tell him off for it, that'll make him think he's edgy and then he might actually go to /b/ and they'll eat him.

...

Actually, carry on.

Death will be like .

[thomascott.livejournal.com]

You described Angus Fairhurst's passing as "tragically untimely" out of the boring old common compassion most of us feel for others, not because you wish to elicit a tokenist 'stale' or 'formulaic' statement on the artist's death.
You could have described his suicide as an artistic statement but that would be subscribing to a greater cliche - the notion that overturning supposed taboos concerning death is provocative and exciting.
It does buy a country house for Damien Hirst but artistically it now equates with tapping the patellar tendon with a very small mallet.

[robotmummies.livejournal.com]

i wonder if that iswhat this picture means:
http://nastynets.com/index.php?s=kurdt

[fishwithissues.livejournal.com]

god seizures are so scary and bizarre. i wonder if i will ever get one from something i'm editing. or maybe i've built up a tolerance...

haha i really like the last paragraph of this. YOU ARE A HYPNOTIST MAN!

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

So Woodard designed a machine that did away with Kurt Cobain?

My new hero!

(could we arrange to have one sent to Sting?)