Table of Contents
About This Issue
Imagination: A Dialogue
about Creativity, Drugs
and Altered States
written by Alfonso Montuori
illustrated by Carrie Nardello
The Sound of Resistance
written by Robin Balliger
illustrated by Freddie Baer
From eee
written and illustrated by
Richard Olsen
The Poetry of Statistics
written by Margot Pepper
Fair Use
written by Negativland
illustrated by Freddie Baer
Forget the Past, and Just Say Yes
written and illustrated by
Phil Lollar
News & Reviewz
The Knocking Heads
Photos by Sally Allemang
Artist Info
Komotion Katalog
Membership Information
Front Cover by Freddie Baer
Back Cover by Johann Humyn Being
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37
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$1
52Mar Caitaian askzp Me to write a piece for
i wrote abo: é fact that the literature on
focuses almost exclusively on individuals, but
hardly ever addresses the group or collaborative work of
bands, theater, films, friends, mentors, etc. — what I've
been cailing social creativity. It also largely fails to
address another important aspect of my — and a lot of
other people’s — experience, namely the role of altered
states and drugs in creativity, so at Mat’s suggestion 111
go into it here
Komot
creativity
In the sp:
dialogue
Carsie has
follows is
tof social creativity, I've approached this project through a
Carrie Nardetio, an artist whose work I very much admire
vibuted the art which sucrounds these words, and what
don our discussions as she was creating these paintings,
19S Tot surprisingly, what she told me about herself expressed very
clearly the findings of psychologists who have studied creative
Tama gc
3s, sacall to
"). The quest for altered states, visions, images,
pication, a way to open ug to the world and to
we word inspiration comes from che Latin inspirare or to
Kowonon i
AL SouND Macazine 47Artists — and just about everybody else, for that matter — commonly
explore altered states because they provide a different way of seeing the
‘world — they break mental ‘sets’ and allow us see the world anew. Our
everyday consciousness can become very dulled by routine, and
Particularly living in large cities we can become insensitive to much of
What is around us —we have to shut out some of the noise, the pain, the
babble, Aldous Huxley felt that the brain was a ‘reducing valve’, filtering
out supposedly nonessential information. But who decides what is
essential? Part of the creative process involves switching to a state of
Consciousness where we can regain our sensitivity. We can also get into
altered states to become desensitized, to forget our sorrow — to anesthe-
{ize ourselves. Getting drunk when we're depressed is atypical example,
{n this piece, we'll focus exclusively on altered states that are used not to
block out experience, but to increase and expand it.
Creativity esearcher Frank Barron writes that consciousness-expanding
‘drugs can have the following effects: An intensification of esthetic sensibil,
ity, with colors becoming more vivid; experiences of synesthesia where
colors are ‘heard’, sounds are ‘seen’; beauty and ugliness become more
important. Unusual associational patterns become more frequent: in other
Words, the familiar becomes strange, and the strange can become
familiar. We see the world differently, and make unusual associations
and connections, which are typical of the creative process. Intuition in
relation to other people is increased, so we can seemingly ‘see through’
People, although Barron warns that “sober judgment” should be “the
final arbiter of the intuitive leap.” Higher purposes and the motivation to
make one’s life philosophically meaningfl become very important: many
artists who have taken LSD, or have experienced other profoundly
consciousness-expanding altered states, have reported that the experi-
ence made them become more serious about their work, and gave it
greater depth.
All these effects can ‘go both ways,’ and Aldous Huxley's book on
‘mescaline is titled Heaven and Hell for good reason, At the suggestion of
4 friend, the French philosopher and novelist Jean Paul Sartre had a
mescaline experience in 1936, while writing his book {magination, The
title of his next book was Nausea, which probably gives you an idea of
Sartre's trip, (He had the experience of being harassed by crustaceans in
a train — the train was ‘real’, the crustaceans weren't — and never ate
lobster or crab again.) It wasall there — intense esthetic experience (ugly
crustaceans), unusual associations (life as nausea), intuitions of others
Chellis other people,” hewas to write laterin the cheerily titled No Exit),
and the motivation to make life philosophically meaningful displayed in
his plays, novels, and philosophical works.
Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary, on the other hand, had @ much
more positive experience when, at Frank Barron’s suggestion, he first
tried mushrooms: “Nile palaces, Hindu temples, Babylonian boudoirs,
Bedouin pleasure tents, gem flashery, woven silk gowns breathing color,
‘mosaics flaming with Muzo emeralds, Burma rubies, Ceylon sapphires
Herecame those jeweled serpents, those Moorish septiles sliding, coiling
Page 4 Koworiow Intenvamionat Sousa Maca #7gown the drain in the middle of
sing were crucial tc experiences of aitered states, In other
vords, you have to be in the right ind in the right plac
cecause as you're going to be experiencing
your nead and what’s in your
more sensitive,
Leary, stuck in solitary contine-
7 of 'many selves,” a theme that's bee:
en up Dy many other ¢
in, and the creation of the self and of our relationshis.
ct of the energy in some people arises, as Carrie said, in a faith
in che process itself, in the means a5 opposed co the end, and the
realization that any end is only a temporary stepping stone in an
sagoing process. [t's all grist for the mill, a process of profoundiy
personal healing for the artist that is also universal in the sense that it can
neal or at least resonate in a positive way with those who experience i
n this way, the energy becomes a kind of power. Sut Carrie is quick to
point out that’s it's not power over other people, as she puts it, but a
power fo, “the power to sive energy, to take whatever we've gotand make
something positive of it, and give it back.”
One of the remarkable things about the creative process is the way it can
show us people who have ‘eaten bitter’, as the Chinese say, and yet do
ot become bitter, or force the bitterness on others, ut come back with
2 positive energy thats all the more remarkable and admirable precisely
because of their life experiences. Pethaps the deeper ous experience, the
more of it we have to yive, and we can draw on the energy that our
periences give us and transform it within us in a way that can inspire
and inform others. ind what we chcose to do with our experiences.
altered’ or otherwise, and with ourenergy, should wwe decide to cultivate
is ultimately up to us,
— Alfonso Montuc:
Kowonow rtanarnisins, Suis Macaane 37
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fan wen sod aty cur tart
Seip wader enna
2 But hey ae ls sce: