The Dream Machine
A Multisensory Organ
The Dream Machine is a multi-player, multi-sensory organ (the instrument-kind!) that uses sound, smell and light to explore how we can feel truly alive! The multi-sided, synesthetic installation is designed as a series of ten bicycle pumps and brass horns that, when pumped, each produce sound, scent and light that represents a specific emotion. The challenge is to play them together and unlock a secret effect which, in turn, reveals that we are most human when orchestrating our full spectrum of emotional expression.
We worked with Emilie Baltz to create the Dream Machine. The piece has toured the New Lab, Panorama Music Festival and now is part of the permanent collection at the Liberty Science Center, in New Jersey.
Antfood wrote an original composition and developed a custom playback engine to pass sounds (and gas) through talk boxes and repurposed French horns. Each station represents one of ten unique emotions in sound and smell.
Making the Magic: Dalton and Wilson fine-tune the technology.
