Here are six minutes of black and white synesthesia, to a free jazz piece by Paul Plimley and Barry Guy.
(link: Matan. thank you again!)
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The psychedelic films of Peter Jackson
9 OctI remembered the idea Terrence Mckenna expressed, about mainstream culture becoming psychedelic because it’s creators are directly influenced by the psychedelic experience, when I saw Jackson’s “Lovely Bones”. Jackson’s most popular films -the Lord Of The Rings series, take place in a fantasy world, and have an according design that is 100% fairytale illustration. the “psychedelic” manifestations in his work are therefor found in other films, where a realistic happening is suddenly juxtaposed with a completely surreal and colorful delirium. this transition from a more or less realistic cinematic expression to a visually packed fantastic one, has more in common with the use of psychedelic drugs than a film that is fantastic from beginning to end. I believe Jackson chose to use visuals that are characteristic of psychedelic trips (ie – the melting background, brighr colors, radiant objects, flying and the intensification of Nature) in places where he wants to depict a liminal state – between life and death, between sanity and psychosis, childhood and adulthood.
200 Motels
4 OctFrank Zappa’s 1971 feature film (93 minutes, directed with Tony Palmer) is not for the week at heart: it’s super intensive, slapstick psychedelia with a hardly noticeable plot line to follow – something about a band on an endless crazy tour. Zappa fans love it, to judge from imdb message boards, while the rest render it “unwatchable”; still no one claims to understand it.
200 motels features The Mothers Of Invention (Zappa himself plays a side role as a musician in the band), animation by Charles Swenson, Kieth Moon in drag as a Nun, and Ringo Star as Larry The Dwarf, who pretends to be Frank Zappa.
Synesthetic Reactor
2 OctThe psychedelic experience allow one to relate differently to the world around us: it removes the differentiation between object and subject, and alters the perception of cause and effect. This is why I think an interface should be a major consideration in a psychedelic work of art; and the reson I picked the video above from Thor Johnson’s highly recommended Vimeo page.
These elastic tentacles reminded me of the game pod from David Cronenberg’s “Existenz”. A cyber-psychedelic masterpiece that will get a post of its own… soon!
Friends With You
27 SepFriends With You is a collaboration between two artists, Sam Borkson and Arturo Sandoval. They do everything from playgrounds to gallery shows, from a giant balloons parade to a hard cover book. all is meant to bring magic, luck and friendship!
Lan Dan Deeee!
25 SepI came across a whole series of videos from japan, made from a 10 seconds footage of Roland McDonald shouting something in Japanese, That are applied over and over again with different video effects. It’s unexplainable, twisted and repetitive, like some experiences from drugs I don’t really want to do again. Roland McDonald is a disturbing figure to start with, the ecstatic smiley that represents the corporate giant playing with our mind. The Japanese videos in this post, and many others linked to them, are taking to extreme the overwhelming commercial trip that is the urban and the virtual world around us.
Jill Bolte Taylor’s stroke of insight
20 SepHow many brain scientists had had the chance of studying a brain stroke from the inside out? Jill Bolt talked on TED about her own stroke, with remarkable openness. What she described may remind a psychedelic trip, so her fluent explanation about the mechanism behind that might shed some light on your own experiences; but the real light comes at the end of this beautiful, funny and touching clip…
thank you Matan L. for that link!
3D triping on YouTube
13 SepBack in the 1990’s there was this fad of stereographic posters, and you could see people standing in gift-shops, staring at completely abstract patterns and occasionally here someone crying “I CAN SEE!”
If you got the hang of it, you can move to the next level of stereographic videos: Just go to full screen view, cross your eyes and step into the third dimension.
This one requires more intense eye-crossing, but is well worth it:
You can only find this place by drifting
11 SepThe quiet man seems to be the only living soul in post apocalyptic deserted London. John Foxx, the British musician, compiled this spoken word record, which inspired graphic artist Jonathan Barnbrook in making this dream-like drift through an alien city.
a longer sound clip with beautiful old 16mm footage can be found here
The Daily Psychedelic Video 