The process of film perception relies on equal parts optics, mechanics and chemistry; the experience of converging stories comes only with the specific channeling of these conditions. TUNING THE SLEEPING MACHINE suggests a psycho-physical cinema, an emulsive journey of hypnotic illusion that pulls at narrative expectation. Circulating forces of control suffuse our collective cinematic experience; this is a beautiful and daunting history. Preface: In 1895, Sigmund Freud abandons hypnosis as a viable therapeutic practice in favor of psychoanalysis. The same year, the Lumiere brothers present the first flickers of recreated life through motion pictures.