Ian Sommerville (technician)

Ian Sommerville (June 3, 1940 – February 5, 1976)[2] was an electronics technician and computer programmer.

Sommerville was educated at the King's School, Canterbury, and at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

He and Gysin also collaborated in 1961 in developing the Dreamachine, a phonograph-driven stroboscope described as "the first art object to be seen with the eyes closed",[3] and intended to affect the viewer's brain alpha wave activity.

Sommerville and Burroughs made the 5-minute tape "Silver Smoke of Dreams" in the early 1960s, and later provided the basis for the quarter-hour audio "cut-up" and "K-9 Was in Combat with the Alien Mind-Screens" around 1965.

"No realisation" referred to Ian's unsuccessful search for a job as a computer programmer in America.