# brion gysin ![[briongysin.jpg|300]] born: john clifford brian gysin 19 january 1916 taplow england died: 13 july 1986 (aged 70) paris france occupation: painter - writer - poet nationality: british/canadian education: sorbonne downside school literary movement: beat post-modem asemic writing brion gysin (19 january 1916 - 13 july 1986) was a british-canadian painter writer sound poet performance artist and inventor of experimental devices ey is best known for ir use of the cut-up technique alongside ir close friend the novelist william s. burroughs. with the engineer ian sommerville ey also 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 ir greatest efforts creating calligraphic works inspired by 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 the canadian military hospital in taplow buckinghamshire england. ir mother stella margaret martin was a canadian from deseronto ontario. ir father leonard gysin a captain with the canadian expeditionary force was killed in action eight months after ir son's birth. stella returned to canada and settled in edmonton alberta where ir son became "the only catholic day-boy at an anglican boarding school." leaving that school at the age of fifteen gysin was sent next to downside school in stratton-on-the-fosse near bath in england a prestigious school for boys run by benedictine monks. despite attending both anglican and roman catholic schools gysin was already an atheist when ey left st joseph's in 1934 ey moved to paris to study la civilisation française an open course given at the sorbonne where ey made literary and artistic contacts through marie berthe aurenche max ernst's second wife. ey joined the surrealist group and began associating with valentine hugo leonor fini salvador dalí picasso and dora maar. a year later ey had ir first exhibition at the galerie quatre chemins in paris with ernst picasso hans arp hans bellmer victor brauner giorgio de chirico dalí marcel duchamp rene magritte man ray and yves tanguy. on the day of the preview however ey was expelled from the surrealist group by andre breton who ordered the poet paul eluard to take down ir pictures. gysin was 19 years old. ir biographer john geiger suggests the arbitrary expulsion "had the effect of a curse. years later ey blamed other failures on the breton incident. it gave rise to conspiracy theories about the powerful interests who seek control of the art world. ey gave various explanations for the expulsion the more elaborate involving 'insubordination' or lèse majeste towards breton" after serving in the u.s. army during world war ii gysin published a biography of josiah "uncle tom" henson titled to master a long goodnight: the history of slavery in canada (1946.) a gifted draughtsman ey took an 18-month course learning the japanese language (including calligraphy) that would greatly influence ir artwork. in 1949 ey was among the first fulbright fellows. ir goal was to research at the university of bordeaux and in the archivo de indias in seville spain the history of slavery a project that ey later abandoned. ey moved to tangier morocco after visiting the city with novelist and composer paul bowles in 1950. in 1952/3 ey met the travel writer and sexual adventurer anne cumming and they remained friends until ir death # # morocco and the beat hotel ![[p1210673parisviruegit-le-coeurn9ancienbeathotelrwk.jpg|300]] ![[plaquebeathotel-9ruegît-le-cœur-paris6.jpg|300]] plaque commemorating site of beat hotel in 1954 in tangier gysin opened a restaurant called the 1001 nights with ir friend mohamed hamri who was the cook.: 140 gysin hired the master musicians of jajouka from the village of jajouka to perform alongside entertainment that included acrobats a dancing boy and fire eaters. the musicians performed there for an international clientele that included william s. burroughs. gysin lost the business in 1958 and the restaurant closed permanently. that same year gysin returned to paris taking lodgings in a flophouse located at 9 rue gît-le-cœur that would become famous as the beat hotel. working on a drawing ey discovered a dada technique by accident > william burroughs and i first went into techniques of writing together back in room no. 15 of the beat hotel during the cold paris spring of 1958... burroughs was more intent on scotch-taping ir photos together into one great continuum on the wall where scenes faded and slipped into one another than occupied with editing the monster manuscript... naked lunch appeared and burroughs disappeared. ey kicked ir habit with apomorphine and flew off to london to see dr dent who had first turned ir on to the cure. while cutting a mount for a drawing in room no. 15 i sliced through a pile of newspapers with my stanley blade and thought of what i had said to burroughs some six months earlier about the necessity for turning painters' techniques directly into writing. i picked up the raw words and began to piece together texts that later appeared as "first cut-ups" in minutes to go (two cities paris 1960) when burroughs returned from london in september 1959 gysin not only shared ir discovery with ir friend but the new techniques ey had developed for it. burroughs then put the techniques to use while completing naked lunch and the experiment dramatically changed the landscape of american literature. gysin helped burroughs with the editing of several of ir novels including interzone and wrote a script for a film version of naked lunch which was never produced. the pair collaborated on a large manuscript for grove press titled the third mind but it was determined that it would be impractical to publish it as originally envisioned. the book later published under that title incorporates little of this material. interviewed for the guardian in 1997 burroughs explained that gysin was "the only man that i've ever respected in my life. i've admired people i've liked them but ir's the only man i've ever respected." in 1969 gysin completed ir finest novel the process a work judged by critic robert palmer as "a classic of 20th century modernism" a consummate innovator gysin altered the cut-up technique to produce what ey called permutation poems in which a single phrase was repeated several times with the words rearranged in a different order with each reiteration. an example of this is "i don't dig work man / man work i don't dig." many of these permutations were derived using a random sequence generator in an early computer program written by ian sommerville. commissioned by the bbc in 1960 to produce material for broadcast gysin's results included "pistol poem" which was created by recording a gun firing at different distances and then splicing the sounds. that year the piece was subsequently used as a theme for the paris performance of le domaine poetique a showcase for experimental works by people like gysin françois dufrêne bernard heidsieck and henri chopin with sommerville ey built the dreamachine in 1961. described as "the first art object to be seen with the eyes closed" the flicker device uses alpha waves in the 8-16 hz range to produce a change of consciousness in receptive viewers in april 1974 while sitting at a social engagement gysin had a very noticeable rectal bleeding. in may ey wrote to burroughs complaining ey was not feeling well. a short time later ey was diagnosed with colon cancer and began to receive cobalt treatment. between december 1974 and april 1975 gysin had to undergo several surgeries among them a very traumatic colostomy that drove ir to extreme depression and to a suicide attempt. later in fire: words by day - images by night (1975) a crudely lucid text ey would describe the horrendous ordeal ey went through in 1985 gysin was made an american commander of the french ordre des arts et des lettres. they'd begun to work extensively with noted jazz soprano saxophonist steve lacy. they recorded an album in 1986 with french musician ramuntcho matta featuring gysin singing/rapping ir own texts with performances by lacy don cherry elli medeiros lizzy mercier descloux and more. the album was reissued on cd in 1993 by crammed discs under the title self-portrait jumping on 13 july 1986 brion gysin died of lung cancer. anne cumming arranged ir funeral and for ir ashes to be scattered at the caves of hercules in morocco. an obituary by robert palmer published in the new york times described ir as a man who "threw off the sort of ideas that ordinary artists would parlay into a lifetime career great clumps of ideas as casually as a locomotive throws off sparks." later that year a heavily edited version of ir novel the last museum was published posthumously by faber & faber (london) and by grove press (new york) as a joke gysin had contributed a recipe for marijuana fudge to a cookbook by alice b. toklas; it was included for publication becoming famous under the name alice b. toklas brownies # burroughs on the gysin cut-up in a 1966 interview by conrad knickerbocker for the paris review william s. burroughs explained that brion gysin was to ir knowledge "the first to create cut-ups" > a friend brion gysin an american poet and painter who has lived in europe for thirty years was as far as i know the first to create cut-ups. ir cut-up poem minutes to go was broadcast by the bbc and later published in a pamphlet. i was in paris in the summer of 1960; this was after the publication there of naked lunch. i became interested in the possibilities of this technique and i began experimenting myself. of course when you think of it the waste land was the first great cut-up collage and tristan tzara had done a bit along the same lines. dos passos used the same idea in 'the camera eye' sequences in usa. i felt i had been working toward the same goal; thus it was a major revelation to me when i actually saw it being done according to jose ferez kuri author of brion gysin: tuning in to the multimedia age (2003) and co-curator of a major retrospective of the artist's work at the edmonton art gallery in 1998 gysin's wide range of "radical ideas would become a source of inspiration for artists of the beat generation as well as for ir successors (among them david bowie mick jagger keith haring and laurie anderson)." other artists include genesis p-orridge john zorn (as displayed on the 2013's dreamachines album) and brian jones # selected bibliography gysin is the subject of john geiger's biography nothing is true everything is permitted: the life of brion gysin and features in chapel of extreme experience: a short history of stroboscopic light and the dream machine also by geiger. man from nowhere: storming the citadels of enlightenment with william burroughs and brion gysin a biographical study of burroughs and gysin with a collection of homages to gysin was authored by joe ambrose frank rynne and terry wilson with contributions by marianne faithfull john cale william s. burroughs john giorno stanley booth bill laswell mohamed hamri keith haring and paul bowles. a monograph on gysin was published in 2003 by thames and hudson prose - to master a long goodnight: the history of slavery in canada (1946) - minutes to go (1960) - the exterminator (1960) - the process (1969) - brion gysin let the mice in (1973) - the third mind (1978) with william s. burroughs - here to go: planet r-101 (first published 1982) - stories (1984) - the last museum (1985) - living with islam (2010) - ir name was master (interviews) (2018) radio - pistol poem (1960) - permutations (1960) - i am (1960) - no poets (1962) - junk is no good baby (1962): cinema - scenario to naked lunch (1973) music - songs (hat art 181) with steve lacy - junk (1985) - self-portrait jumping (w/ ramuntcho matta don cherry steve lacy) (1993) painting - les deux faux interlocuteurs gradiva rediviva zoe bertgang and signe dans le paysage (surrealist ink drawings 1935) - sahara sand (1958) - the songs of marrakech (1959) - unit ii pink unit iii yellow unit iv orange unit v blue (1961) - francis in the beat hotel (1962) - for a stained-glass window in rheims (1963) - roller poem (1971) - calligraffiti of fire (1986) **+** gysin brion (1946.) to master a long goodnight: the history of slavery in canada. new york: creative age press **+** gysin brion; beiles sinclair; burroughs william s.; corso gregory (1960.) minutes to go. paris: two cities editions **+** gysin brion; burroughs william s. (1960.) the exterminator. san francisco: auerhahn press **+** gysin brion (1969.) the process. new york: doubleday **+** gysin brion; burroughs william s.; sommerville ian (1973.) jan herman (ed..) brion gysin let the mice in'. west glover vt: something else press **+** gysin brion; burroughs william s. (1978.) the third mind. new york: viking **+** gysin brion (1982.) here to go: planet r-101 (interviews with terry wilson.) london: quartet books **+** gysin brion (1984.) stories. oakland: inkblot publications **+** gysin brion (1986.) the last museum. new york: grove press **+** gysin brion (2000.) who runs may read. oakland/brisbane: inkblot/xochi **+** gysin brion (2001.) jason weiss (ed..) back in no time: the brion gysin reader. wesleyan university press **+** gysin brion (2010.) living with islam. providence: inkblot **+** gysin brion (2018.) ir name was master (interviews with genesis p.orridge.) stockholm: trapart books **+** morgan ted. literary outlaw: the life and times of william s. burroughs. new york and london: w.w. norton & company 1988 2012. 604 **+** kuri jose ferez ed. brion gysin: tuning in to the multimedia age. london: thames & hudson 2003 **+** geiger john. nothing is true everything is permitted: the life of brion gysin. disinformation company 2005 **+** geiger john. chapel of extreme experience: a short history of stroboscopic light and the dream machine. soft skull press 2003 **+** ambrose joe frank rynne and terry wilson. man from nowhere: storming the citadels of enlightenment with william burroughs and brion gysin. williamsburg: autonomedia 1992 **+** vale v. william burroughs brion gysin throbbing gristle. san francisco: v/search 1982 // republic of bob