Dreamachine: High Sensory

Travel through a technicolour world of light and sound in this immersive, collective experience.

Sit back.

Get comfortable

Close your eyes…

Dreamachine is an immersive experience like no other. Join us on a once-in-a-lifetime journey to explore the extraordinary potential of your own mind.

This powerful new kind of collective experience will come from within, conjured entirely by light and music. The colourful world of the Dreamachine will unfold behind your closed eyes – created by your own brain and completely unique to you.

What will you see? How will you feel? Only you will know because every experience of the Dreamachine will be completely personal. You might see patterns and shapes, cities and landscapes, or abstract waves of shifting colours. It might feel like a rollercoaster ride, or a journey through time and space.

Dreamachine has been created by a team of leading minds in architecture, technology, music, neuroscience, and philosophy, including Turner Prize-winning collective Assemble and Grammy and Mercury nominated composer Jon Hopkins.

It's inspired by an extraordinary 1959 invention by artist Brion Gysin, described as the ‘first artwork to be experienced with your eyes closed’. Now, over 60 years later, the 21st-century Dreamachine has been radically re-imagined into a seated, multisensory experience with an immersive lightscape and 360 degree spatial sound.

Like a modern kind of campfire, you’ll share your Dreamachine journey with a group of up to 32 people at a time. After your experience, you’ll be invited to reflect on what you saw, what you heard and how you felt, by yourself or with others.

Join us on a magical journey into the extraordinary potential of your own mind. Please complete a pre-booking form here before booking this experience.

There are two versions of the Dreamachine experience:

High Sensory

The High Sensory experience contains fast flashing bright lights, known as strobe lighting, and 360 degree spatial audio that has been used to create a deeply immersive experience. For many people, the effects of the lights and the music will generate colourful patterns and visuals behind your closed eyes.

Please complete a pre-booking form here before booking this experience.

Deep Listening

The Deep Listening experience has been designed to make the experience as accessible as possible to those who may have sensitivities to strobe lighting or high sensory environments. It is an immersive 360 degree spatial audio experience, with a gentle lightscape. It does not contain fast flashing lights. Find out more and book the Deep Listening experience.

This immersive experience has been created by Collective Act, directed by Jennifer Crook, in a unique collaboration with Turner Prize-winning artists Assemble, Grammy® nominated composer Jon Hopkins, leading neuroscientists Professor Anil Seth and Dr David Schwartzman (University of Sussex), philosopher Professor Fiona Macpherson (University of Glasgow), sound designer Christopher Shutt, and technologists Dev Joshi and Holition.

Commissioned as part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, with support from Belfast City Council, EventScotland and Creative Wales.