Encouraged by the possibilities of cut and re-paste, Gysin began tape-recording poems, eventually skewing them with computer algorithms and creating what we now know as sound poetry — what he called “permutations”. Gysin was a pioneer in recognizing the potential of using a computer to reach his artistic ends. He expanded this discovery even further by performing the permutations backed by music and slide projections, a practice we now shrug at and call multimedia. It was precisely this fearlessness of mixing, morphing, and reassembling information, however, that reveals the true wizardry of Brion Gysin. Thankfully, the world is finally ready to recognize it.

Brion Gysin: Dream Machine runs from July 7 to October 3.