Somnoproxy asks visitors to lie down on a bed and close their eyes whilst they're read the fictional story of someone who sleeps on behalf of clients who are too busy to do it themselves.
Somerset House
This project began life as a collaboration with Moog, curated by Paul Smith. Iain and Jane made a sound piece and performance titled ‘A Long Goodnight’. ‘Somnoproxy’ is an immersive sound installation derived from that initial project, supported by L-Acoustics.
It incorporates a futuristic bedtime story, written by Stuart Evers, about a conman who offers his services to sleep on behalf of wealthy executives who are too busy and too stressed to sleep themselves. The narrative is woven with the story of one successful business woman who relies on his service. The piece is read by actors Enzo Cilenti and Kate Ashfield, and is set to a sonic accompaniment created by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard in the Moog Sound Lab UK.
To experience the work, viewers are invited to lie down in a personal auditorium called ‘The Island’, designed by L-Acoustics Creations. Concealed within the Island is cutting-edge technology built on a proprietary 24-channel audio system, capable of faithfully reproducing a full 140dB dynamic range, extending right through into the infra-low range.
In front of The Island stands the Dreamachine, a stroboscopic flicker device designed by the artist Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs’ “systems adviser” Ian Sommerville. The device rotates allowing light to be transmitted at between 8 and 13 pulses per second, a frequency range that corresponds to alpha waves, electrical oscillations present in the relaxed human brain. Many claim the Dreamachine can induce a hypnagogic state.
Photography: Tim Bowman
Somnoproxy promises little and delivers even less; it is, like all dubious sciences, just plausible enough for the credulous and desperate to give it a go. The idea came to me in jail as my cellmate tossed and turned for the eighth straight night. He had become a friend of sorts and I thought about something my mother had once said when I was ill: if I could take your pain, my boy, I would. At that moment, I wished I could sleep for him; to give him my sleep. The idea kept me awake myself. Was not lack of sleep a most common of maladies? Was there not something in the idea of sleeping for a living?
The opening lines of Somnoproxy
