10/07/2010

Dream Machine: What's it all about then?



Just finished holding page for our Dream Machine site. I put together an image and the wonderful illuminated style font was created by mooshpie. Seems like a good time to explain what this project is all about...

Dream Machine is the 2010 White Night / BANG commission, there will be opportunities for animators, comics artists, illustrators and musicians to get involved. The building the project hangs around is the Old Steine’s Marlborough House. Our idea was to see if a group could tell a story around this building, using a variety of media. We’re laying down a backstory in two comic’s newspapers, which gives the scoop on what’s been going on inside Marlborough House. The newspapers will be distributed around Brighton in October, and the story will be brought to life on the night with a big live animation finale.


The story itself is a fun, shlocky take on the festival theme of Illuminations. We used the 1790s and scientific invention as a jumping off point for a narrative about a Doctor who has retreated into Marlborough House with his Dream Machine to experiment on the sleep of his patients. The patients have all slumbered on through to the present day, it’s 2010 outside, though still very much 1792 inside, and now they want to wake up. As well as visualising the inside of Marlborough House, the newspaper re-imagines Brighton as a dream city: we’ve already commissioned a giant Octopus on the sea front, the North Laines as a tropical jungle and a hoarde of naked people on London Road!


The comics narrative ends on a cliffhanger which the animation event will pick up and bring the story to it’s climax using the front of Marlborough house itself. If you come down on the night you’ll see animated dreams and visions pour out of the façade of the Georgian mansion. The event will be soundtracked by a specially commissioned radio show, that we hope will go out live on the night too: it’s a re-take on HG Wells’ War of the World, except instead of aliens invading, the live broadcast will report on the dreams and visions stalking the Brighton streets.


It’s a really exciting project and born out of a love for animation, comics and cephalopods. Keep an eye on the website as the callout will go live real soon: www.dreammachine.com

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