On Thursday, April 19, we’re debuting our newest exhibit: the Dream Machine!

This interactive, sensory adventure is unlike anything that’s ever been at Liberty Science Center before. Created by experience designer and multimedia artist Emilie Baltz, the Dream Machine uses data and sensors to produce combinations of of colors, sounds, and scents – some pleasant, some unpleasant – when guests come together to play a series of bicycle pumps.

There’s happiness. There’s disgust. There’s shame. There’s hope. By playing at each of the different stations, guests experience a full, complex range of human emotion.

“Visitors can expect anything from the smell of vomit and the sound of farts to scents inspired by orange dreamsicles and arpeggios of twinkling bells – with lots of surprises in between!” Baltz says.

The Dream Machine was first introduced to the world last year at New York’s Panorma Festival. But now it’ll have a permanent home at LSC, with its official grand opening on April 19 at LSC After Dark: SciChella, our latest LSC After Dark event for guests 21 and over. (Click here for more information!)

A few days before the Dream Machine’s LSC debut, we chatted with Beltz about her excitement, her inspiration, and the secret she’s hidden inside the device.

What is your favorite part of the Dream Machine?

I love watching people’s faces as they play it – pure joy!

I also truly love the disgust smell and the fear smell. One is very literal (disgust) and the other very abstract (fear). They stimulate primal parts of our brains and our emotions that we usually shy away from feeling. They represent challenges for people, and I love that.

How does collaboration play a role with the Dream Machine?

To fully experience the Dream Machine, collaboration is key. Each station creates a different sound. By playing them all together, guests trigger a full song, which invites them to work together to get the reward!

You can definitely experience the Dream Machine as a solitary player, but it is intentionally designed to be way more fun together.

How does it feel knowing the Dream Machine will become a permanent part of LSC?

I am such a fan of LSC and so thrilled with the opportunity to present the Dream Machine in the context of an institution dedicated to learning, experimentation, and discovery. Those are all principles by which I live my own life and I couldn’t be happier to have the machine in such an accessible, and aligned, location.

What do you hope guests at LSC will take away from their experience with the Dream Machine?

I hope guests will become more aware of their own feelings – like what does happiness smell, sound, look, and feel like?

Emotions are what make us fundamentally human. Our emotional experiences write the story of our lives. By recognizing, and giving definition, to these emotions we create the meaning of our lives, and are thus able to communicate better with the people around us.

This is my dream for not only LSC visitors, but all of humanity.

Be there April 19 to experience the Dream Machine’s debut at LSC After Dark: SciChella! Click here for more information and to get tickets.

Additional collaborators on the Dream Machine include sound design by Antfood Studios, technology by Smooth Technology, fabrication by No.4 Studios, and scent by Giavudan.