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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 12 25 30 33 37 41 48 $1 52 Mar 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 47 Artists — 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 #7 gown 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 ‘s fan wen sod aty cur tart Seip wader enna 2 But hey ae ls sce:

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