An immersive experience like no other
Join us on a once-in-a-lifetime journey to explore the incredible potential of your own mind. Conjured entirely by light and music, a colourful world will unfold behind your closed eyes, created by the power of your own brain and completely unique to you. The most complex technology required is the brain itself.
This extraordinary seated, multisensory experience with 360 degree spatial sound will offer you an entirely new way to disconnect from everyday life, and reconnect with both yourself and others.
Only you will know, because every experience of the Dreamachine is completely personal.
You might see patterns and shapes, cities and landscapes, or abstract waves of shifting colours. It might feel like a rollercoaster ride, a journey through time and space, or you might even drift into sleep.
A sell out success across every nation of the UK in 2022, from 2024, Dreamachine will begin to tour internationally, already attracting interest from 40 cities, in 25 countries, across 6 continents – and counting. Learn more about Dreamachine’s future plans and explore other parts of the programme by signing up to our newsletter.
Created by Collective Act, in collaboration with a team of leading technologists, artists, scientists and philosophers, Dreamachine features a spatial design by Assemble, and a new score in 360 spatial sound composed for the experience by Grammy-nominated composer Jon Hopkins.
This once-in-a-lifetime 360 degree spatial audio experience will take you on an extraordinary journey into the potential of your mind. Combining flickering white lights – known as strobe lighting – with a bespoke score, High Sensory is a deeply personal and immersive experience. For many, the choreography of lights and music conjures colourful patterns and visuals behind closed eyes. The experience is created by your own brain and completely unique to you.
Curl up in a blanket, sit back, close your eyes and get lost in a moment that is just for you. Deep Listening is an audio experience with the same score as High Sensory, but designed to be enjoyed in the dark.
All of the locations that host Dreamachine have a unique story, with each venue bringing it's own personality and dimension to the experience.
During our sell-out UK tour, many visitors asked for Dreamachine to be available permanently, as they found it offered multiple benefits to their mental health and wellbeing. Studio Dreamachine was our first pilot offering an intimate version of the experience as part of everyday life – a community asset, integrated deeply into the local area.
Dreamachine reimagined Murrayfield Ice Rink, transforming this Art Deco space after it was recently forced to close its doors due to Covid-19. Built in 1938, it has been home to one of the world’s most popular ice rinks, providing a central hub of entertainment and events for generations of locals.
Carlisle Memorial Church is one of the city’s most striking buildings, which has served as a gateway to North Belfast since 1875. After ceasing to be a place of worship in the 1980s, the church fell into disrepair before a major campaign in 2008 to secure its regeneration. Dreamachine's visit helped to revitalise the venue and contributed to the return of the building as a vibrant and shared community space.
Premiering in London, Dreamachine transformed the Grade II listed Woolwich Public Market. Located on Plumstead Road, the Market was built in 1931 and is the earliest known example of a Lamella roof to survive in England. It has been dormant since 2018, so the presentation of Dreamachine reawakened the space and provided the public with an opportunity to reconnect with this historic building in the heart of the town centre, ahead of the future regeneration of the area.
This beautiful building was designed to ‘change the world’. A fitting space for current times, it was built in the wake of the First World War, designed to be a place of inspiration, actively furthering the causes of international peace. The Dreamachine experience was live within this magnificent Art Deco civic temple from 12 May - 18 June 2022, providing audiences with a unique and poignant setting for internal reflection.
Love Dreamachine so much you'd like to have one in your local area? Do you live outside of the UK and wish Dreamachine had come to your town?
We want to hear from you!
Where would you like Dreamachine to visit next and why? Help define the next phase of Dreamachine by inputting your suggestions for its future life below.
The Dreamachine is a seated, multisensory immersive experience with music and light, designed to be enjoyed with your eyes closed. Learn more.
Dreamachine will be reopening in the UK and touring internationally soon. To hear the news first, sign up to our mailing list.
The rich inner journeys created by the High Sensory Dreamachine experience are linked to something known as ‘entrainment’ – gentle changes to brain activity created by synchronisation to flickering light, which affects activity in the visual areas of the brain. The frequency of the light provides a ‘beat’ for the rhythms of the brain, similar to the ‘alpha’ rhythm – a brain state normally associated with relaxation. This discovery was first made by the pioneering British neuroscientist Dr Grey Walter in the 1950s.
The question of exactly why flickering light gives rise to such vivid experiences is still unanswered. Our scientific team at the Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, have been investigating this mystery for over a decade and exploring what it might reveal about the nature of consciousness. For a deeper dive into the subjects behind the Dreamachine, visit our Discover page.