About Brion Gypsin

Dreamachines
"Writing is fifty years behind painting."
- Brion Gypsin

   Born in Taplow, Buckinghamshire, Brion Gypsin was known as a writer, sound poet, painter and performance artist in the 20th century. He discovered the cut-up method and technique, a new approach to creating art, which was also used by the famous William Burroughs. This method involves cutting text and then arranging it to create new one. He was cutting through some newspapers when he discovered that the different slices created new and different texts and meanings. With the help of the engineer Ian Sommerville, Gypsin created the Dreamachine, a moving device made as art that has to be truly appreciated by seeing with with eyes closed, which caused complete mental relaxation and a hallucinatory state. It was officially presented in 1962. However, he was most known in paintings and drawings, focusing on calligraphic art influenced by Arabic Script and Japanese "grass" script. He attempted to integrate painting and writing to generate a new system of mark-making. Gypsin also created poems known as permutation poems, which involved the repetition of a phrase but rearranging in a different order every time it is pronounced. Many of the permutation were created by an early computer program that Ian Sommerville possessed. 

This is one of his most known permutations:

I AM THAT I AM

AM I THAT I AMI THAT AM I AMTHAT I AM I AMAM THAT I I AMTHAT AM I I AMI AM I THAT AMAM I I THAT AMI I AM THAT AMI I AM THAT AMAM I I THAT AMI AM I THAT AMI THAT I AM AMTHAT I I AM AMI I THAT AM AMI I THAT AM AMTHAT I I AM AMI THAT I AM AMAM THAT I I AMTHAT AM I I AMAM I THAT I AMI AM THAT I AM.

Good night!

Sincerely,

Michelle