Inspired by Aldous Huxley’s 1931 novel Brave New World (a cautionary tale where technology plays the role of a sedative and people existing only as passive, “feeling machines”) the Dream Machine aims to wake humanity out of its technological slumber.

Designed as an altar to the senses, this multi-player, olfactory organ combines smell with sound, touch and light in a single interactive experience to explore how we experience our emotions.

Each station on the instrument is designed to represent one of 10 basic human emotions: from Happiness to Disgust. When pumped, each station delivers a sensory experience of that emotion in smell, sound and light, inviting guests to play with their feelings in new ways by exploring human emotion through the senses.

The Dream Machine debuted at New York’s Panorama Festival in 2017, and now has a permanent home at the Liberty Science Center.

Dream Machine was supported by the Simons Foundation Science Sandbox and Hewlett Packard.