Brion Gysin (January 19, 1916 – July 13, 1986) was a painter, writer, sound poet, and performance artist born in Taplow, Buckinghamshire.
He is best known for his discovery of the cut-up technique, used by his friend, the novelist William S. Burroughs. With the engineer Ian Sommerville he invented the Dreamachine, a flicker device designed as an art object to be viewed with the eyes closed. It was in painting and drawing, however, that Gysin devoted his greatest efforts, creating calligraphic works inspired by the cursive Japanese "grass" script and Arabic script. Burroughs later stated that "Brion Gysin was the only man I ever respected."
John Clifford Brian Gysin was born at Taplow House, England, a Canadian military hospital. His mother, Stella Margaret Martin, was a Canadian from Deseronto, Ontario. His father, Leonard Gysin, a captain with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, was killed in action eight months after his son's birth. Stella returned to Canada and settled in Edmonton, Alberta where her son became "the only Catholic day-boy at an Anglican boarding school". Graduating at fifteen, Gysin was sent to Downside School in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, near Bath, Somerset in England, a prestigious college known as "the Eton of Catholic public schools" run by the Benedictines.
Destroy All Rational Thought
Sinclair Beiles re William S. Burroughs & Brion Gysin
BRION GYSIN - Self-Portrait Jumping - Dream Machine
Brion Gysin Teaching
V. Vale RE/Search on Brion Gysin, William Burroughs, Derek Jarman, Genesis P-Orridge
Brion Gysin: Dream Machine at the NEW MUSEUM
Brion Gysin at Work
Brion Gysin: Dream Machine
Guerrilla Zoo presents The Dreamachine at Modern Panic III
Brion Gysin: I Am That I Am
Brion Gysin - Pistol Poem
Montague Black in Interview
Brion Gysin - Stop Smoking
Brion Gysin's Dream Machine (2010)
Destroy All Rational Thought
Sinclair Beiles re William S. Burroughs & Brion Gysin
BRION GYSIN - Self-Portrait Jumping - Dream Machine
Brion Gysin Teaching
V. Vale RE/Search on Brion Gysin, William Burroughs, Derek Jarman, Genesis P-Orridge
Brion Gysin: Dream Machine at the NEW MUSEUM
Brion Gysin at Work
Brion Gysin: Dream Machine
Guerrilla Zoo presents The Dreamachine at Modern Panic III
Brion Gysin: I Am That I Am
Brion Gysin - Pistol Poem
Montague Black in Interview
Brion Gysin - Stop Smoking
Brion Gysin's Dream Machine (2010)
Brion Gysin / Kick That Man Habit
Superflex: Euphoria Now. Solo Exhibition at von Bartha, Basel / Interview
(part 2) William S. Burroughs Interview
Brion Gysin - I Am [1960]
Infinity Factory - Genesis P-Orridge
Conversations - William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Timothy Leary, Les Levine, Robert Anton Wilson
Gysin Permutations Software
John Giorno: Poets are Mirrors of the Mind
"V.V.V." by Brion Gysin