Dreams take us to many places, and yet lead us nowhere [Osamu Sato - LSD]

It may seem out of place to be talking about a video game but this is something that l find to have alot of artistic direction. LSD is a video game released in Japan in 1998, it has been dubbed as a "Dream Emulator" by its creator, Japanese artist Osamu Sato, not much is known about Osamu Sato apart from him being an employee at Asmik Ace Entertainment. The game itself is based on a dream journal Sato has kept for a decade, over the years LSD has earned a cult following and has become a popular 'Lets Play' on Youtube.

In LSD, the role of the player is to immerse and navigate through dream world environments, by touching strange objects or bumping into suspicious characters, you will be teleported into another environment, the results of this will cause the textures to change and objects to appear in various environments. When a dream ends you get a graph that keeps track of the players state of mind and the overall general feel of the dream; the states are an 'Upper', 'Downer','Static' and 'Dynamic'.

As you progress through the dreams, the surreal imagery starts to become disturbing, the walls and textures will be covered with Kanji writing and pictures, the floors will be mascot logos (and will squeak as you walk over them), and strange noises will be heard. After long hours of playing, this game conditions the player to become scared and freaked out by every single thing you come across. Occasionally you'll be followed by a grey man in a trench-coat and hat, the Sky will change colour, animals and strange beings will pop-up out of no where. Some dreams are video illustrations and some are poems in Kanji writing, some that have been translated have an unsettling subject matter.

At one point it was like the game knew what scared me and what l didn't like, l kept getting environments that had no music, a deserted space with a black sky, it was like simulating Keno-phobia. What is interesting to note is the soundtrack, the music is jungle-beat, IDM but at the start of the game its completely down tempo and out of pitch, this makes the sound of the music erie but depending on how well you change the environments, the music will significantly change tempo and pitch.

LSD is also one of three seperate products released, besides the video game there was a Remixed Soundtrack CD and a Artbook containing research, concept designs and artworks not just by Osamu Sato but input work by reowned visual artists inculding Kazuko Tsuji.

Overall, l find it amazing how many different formatts this surreal project has gone to, from its conception of music, poetry, a video game and art, a very underrated and ambitous project.