THE DREAM MACHINE EXPERIENCE
THE DREAM MACHINE EXPERIENCE
A Mixed Reality (VR/AR/AI) experience by Nona Hendryx, produced by SOZO
From the mind of the incomparable Nona Hendryx comes a brand-new experience that pushes the boundaries of art and technology. Premiering at Lincoln Center in June 2024, The Dream Machine Experience is a music driven Mixed Reality experience in three segments combining the physical and digital worlds through Afrofuturist art, music, and intergenerational storytelling. Featuring an interactive open forum with humanoid robot Bina48, The Dream Machine Experience invites us to imagine another world is possible.
Dreamers (audience) immerse themselves in the interactive universe of The Dream Machine Experience. Beginning in the garden of Bina48, the world’s first Black Female humanoid robot powered by AI, Dreamers are steeped in conversations, art happenings and live interactions with Bina48 herself. As Dreamers traverse The Bridge guided by AR anchors, and finally arrive in The Dream Machine with VR headsets, Dreamers discover the history of the communities that have populated the land, explore colorful worlds filled with choice, and immerse themselves in thrilling virtual performances with fellow dreamers. Led through these immersive spaces with music and virtual guides, Dreamers are transported and fully immersed into The Dream Machine, a place to seep up the wisdom of the ancestors and look to the dawn of tomorrow.
“It is critical to the development of society that BIPOC technologists are included and participate in the development of the new realities being created; to ensure Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in science and technology, specifically the fields of augmented, virtual, and mixed-reality…The Dream Machine Experience provides a presence in the BIPOC AR, VR, mixed, and game design communities as a thought leader; developing and creating opportunities for BIPOC technologists and resulting in more diverse, equitable, and inclusive realities.”
— Nona Hendryx
The Dream Machine Experience is an intergenerational endeavor that uses art as a vehicle to bridge the technology gap, empower young people, and give them the tools they need to succeed and dream. A major purpose behind the project is to create a cyclical pipeline of engagement for BIPOC female identifying and gender non conforming (gnc) youth, ultimately leading to fulfilling careers in STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. Community partners include Hendryx’s own organization SisterSMATR, Willie Mae Future Sounds, and Silicon Harlem.
An ambitious synthesis of future forward and legacy-guided transformational storytelling, The Dream Machine Experience invites us to collectively discover the past, engage with the present, and imagine the future.
Select collaborators include:
Sutu, AR/VR Director & Principle Artist
EyeJack Studio, Art & Technology Company
Mickalene Thomas, Lead Artistic Director & Designer for the David Rubenstein Atrium
Lutfi Janania, Plant and Sculpture Designer
VR collaborators: Laurie Anderson, George Clinton, Vernon Reid, Skin
AR featured artists: Virgil Oritz, Nick Cave, Cannupa Hanska, Carrie Mae Weems, Bina48
Production Team:
Nona Hendryx, Artistic Director AKA Cyboracle
Ichun Yeh, SOZO, Executive Producer
Dana Greenfield, SOZO, Producer
Dennis “Fox” Bonilla, Project Manager
Nia-Simone, Assistant Project Manager
Sophia Edwards, Dream Machine in house Visual and Social Media Director
Joy Collingbourne, AR VR & Atrium Visual and Audio Production Assistant
Beacon Theatrical Services, Technical Supervisor
SOZO, Co-Executive Producers
The Dream Machine Experience is commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Artistic support for The Dream Machine Experience is provided by the Mellon Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, Creative Capital, Brown Arts Institute at Brown University, The New School, The Terasem Movement Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Chanakya Foundation, and JoAnn K. Chase and Gordon Vene Klasen of Michael Werner Gallery.
This work was developed, in part, under the auspices of an Artist Residency at the Movement Lab in the Milstein Center of Barnard College and Berklee College of Music.
Special Thanks to JoAnn K. Chase for her support of the Native Land AR activation.
ABOUT NONA HENDRYX
In the spirit of two fisted political singer songwriters such as, Nina Simone, and Joni Mitchell, NONA HENDRYX tackles social issues, love and politics with a smoky vocal tessitura somewhere between funk and the end of the stratosphere. Hendryx’s legendary career spans six decades of sound and style evolution. Fans know her as a founding member of the girl group, Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles (with Sarah Dash, Cindy Birdsong and Patti LaBelle) known as “the Sweethearts of the Apollo Theatre” and inducted into the R&B Hall of Fame in 1999. In the 70s, the group morphed into the Rock & Funk Glam Diva's 'Labelle' with the #1 record, Lady Marmalade. Nona Hendryx emerged as the chief songwriter of the group’s socially conscious and illuminating message songs. If Labelle fans grieved the end of Labelle, Nona Hendryx fans welcomed a new one as the revolutionary art-rock, new-wave goddess embarked upon her own impressive Solo career, which spanned eight studio albums and engaged her with an impressive lineup of collaborators (Prince, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, Bono and Cameo), resulting in top ten hits and a Grammy nomination (Rock This Houses with The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards on guitar).
Fast forwarding into the 20th and 21st century’s without losing a note (or gaining a pound) Nona Hendryx remains the Queen of Transformation; writing music for theatre (the Roundabout’s BLUE, written and directed by Charles R. Wright and starring Phylicia Rashad), film (the Lee Daniels 2010 Oscar-nominated Precious),and producing and collaborating in the works of a new generation of artists as well as cowriting songs and appearing on the Terri Lyne Carrington Grammy Award winning, Mosaic Project with Esperanza Spalding, Cassandra Wilson, Diane Reeves and Sheila E.). An activist and vocal supporter for women’s rights, social, political and criminal justice. Helping to raise funds and awareness of HIV/AIDS from the outbreak of the epidemic and still involved today. Dreaming of being an educator because of her English Teacher and mentor Mrs. Lottie Dinkins, Nona worked with education organizations supporting women in prison, a school in Chicago founded by Monica Haslip, Little Black Pearl, taught Stage Craft at The Clive Davis Recording Academy and founded in 2016 her own Non Profit, SisterSMATR.org to bridge the gap in Science, Math, Art, Technology and Robotics for young women of color.
Nona added Ambassador for Artistry in Music at Berklee College of Music in Boston to her career. Working across three departments; Music Ensemble, Music Theater and Berklee’s Electronic Production and Design Department with the guidance of the EPD Chair Michael Bierylo. Nona recently made her directorial debut, collaborating with Berklee’s Dr. Richard Boulanger and Students, the poet Soul Flower and Hank Shocklee (Public Enemy music producer) to create a multi disciplined performance ‘A Rose Out Of Concrete’ with the merged schools, Berklee College and Boston Conservatory including the Conservatory’s Hip Hop Dance students choreographed by the departments Hip Hop dance professor, Duane Holland.
Hendryx presented multimedia performances at MoogFest and MASS MOCA. Having made yet another transformation into a multimedia ‘CyberDiva’, Hendryx still writes music across genres with politically and socially relevant lyrics wrapped in neo-funk grooves, other worldly and soulful vocals, and art-rock charged rhythms.
Photo Credit Sekou Luke