
A Conference on
Hallucinogens
and the Creative
Process.
Hawaii | Sept. 12-17 1999
Announcing the First AllChemical
Arts Conference, an environment in which visual artists, writers, musicians
and film makers can discuss how hallucinogens have influenced and informed
their art activities and
perceptions.
This gathering will be held on the Big Island of Hawaii from September 12-17, 1999. The theme of the conference is the relationship between hallucinogens and the creative process.
It is our anticipation that
the turn of the millennium zeitgeist in the arts is toward a frank exploration
of the influence of hallucinogens on the creative process. The explicit
acknowledgment of the impact of induced visionary states is long past due
and now is the
time
to gather and celebrate the powerful tools that tribal
shamans
and modern pharmacology have placed in the hands of the artistic community.
The union between the values of the archaic world and the values of our
postmodern culture through creative use of hallucinogens is the general
theme of the conference. We are seeking artists whose work reflects the
influence of
psychedelics
in its structure, point of view, thematic emphasis, and in the exploration
of alternative histories and
realities.
The format of the conference includes lectures by a distinguished faculty
of artists about their work and its relation to psychoactive substances,
panel discussions, and an open forum that would allow for direct interaction
between audience and the artists.
We invite you to join us
for six
intense
days on the beautiful Kona Coast of Hawaii to explore the relationship
between chemically induced visionary states and creativity. It is our anticipation
that the turn of the century zeitgeist in the arts is toward a frank exploration
of the influence of psychoactive plants and substances on the creative
process. The explicit acknowledgement of the impact of induced visionary
states is long past due, and now is the time to gather and celebrate the
powerful tools that tribal shamans and modern pharmacology have placed
in the hands of the artistic community. The union between the values of
the archaic world and those of our postmodern culture through the creative
use of psychoactive agents is the general theme of the conference.
We are interested in providing an environment in which visual artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, etc. could discuss how these substances have influenced and informed their art activities. The format of the conference includes lectures by the distinguished artists in our faculty about their work, panel discussions, and an open forum, allowing for direct interaction between audience and the artists in a relaxed, informal atmosphere.
The three organizers have been involved in research on psychoactive plants and shamanic inebriates for over twenty years.
Terence
McKenna, ethnobotanist, writer and theorist,the author of _Food of
the Gods_, _True Hallucinations_
,
and
_The
Archaic Revival_
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Manuel Torres, is professor of art history at Florida
International University, Miami, and specializes in Precolumbian art of
the Andes. He is the author of The Iconography of South American
Snuff
Trays and Related Paraphernalia, and numerous articles on the archaeological
use of
DMT-based
snuff powders.
Ken Symington,, is a free-lance
ethnobotanical investigator having considerable field experience with ayahuasca
shamanism in the
Peruvian
Amazon. He has recently published English translations of The Three Halves
of Ino Moxo by Peruvian author/poet Cesar Calvo, and A Brief History
of Drugs by Spanish philosopher Antonio Escohotado.
We hope that you will consider joining us in Hawaii this September for a celebration of the creative impact of shamanic inebriants on the artistic process
Among our distinguished faculty, the following are confirmed presenters. Updates to follow.
Grey's unique series, The
Sacred Mirrors, examine in detail the physical and
metaphysical
anatomy of an individual. These works of art are reproduced in Grey's book,
Sacred Mirrors, The Visionary Art of Alex Grey. His artwork has been exhibited
worldwide, including the New Museum in NYC, the Grand Palais in Paris,
the Sao Paulo Biennial, and the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art.
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The co-inventor of
Virtual
Reality Modeling Language (VRML), is a professor at the University
of Southern California's School of Cinema and Television. He is the author
of Vrml: Browsing and Building Cyberspace, and Vrml:
Flying
Through the Web (with George Maestri).
Alice Walker (cancelled)
Acclaimed poet and novelist received the Pulitzer
Prize for her novel The Color Purple. She has also received a Guggenheim
Fellowship and the Lillian Smith Award from the National Endowment for
the Arts. Her bestselling novels include Possessing the Secret of Joy,
and The Temple of My Familiar. Her most recent novel, By the
Light
of My Father's
Smile,
is Alice Walker's celebration of sexuality, and its usefulness in accessing
one's mature spirituality.
Bruce Damer
Founder and President of
DigitalSpace Corporation, a research organization dedicated to the development
of inhabited multi-user virtual worlds. Bruce has completed a new book
Avatars,
Exploring and Building Virtual Worlds in the
Internet.
He is a visiting scholar at the University of Washington Human
Interface
Technology Laboratory.
Constance Demby
Is an internationally
known innovator of sound that calls forth
archetypal
experiences accessing the more profound levels of the mind-body-spirit.
Demby is a multi-instrumentalist, painter, schuptor, and instrument designer.
She concieved and constructed the Sonic Steel Instrument, The Space Bass,
and the
Whale
Sail (huge sheets of stainless steel played wiith bows), which generate
deep, resonate, primordial sounds.
Leslie Thornton
Is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of
Modern Culture and Media, Brown University where she teaches film and video
production, experimental theater, contemporary art, and the politics of
travel. She is the recipient of the 1996
Maya
Deren Award of the American Film Institute and the 1995 Albert
Foundation
Award of the California Institute of the Arts. Her works include Adynatas
(1983) and the Peggy and Fred Series (1985-present). Her current project,
the Great Invisible, is the story of the Victorian traveler and adventuress
Isabelle Eberhardt.
Jim Jarmusch
Is a self-avowed
independent film director who projects European cinematic traditions onto
retro, trampled American landscapes. Jarmusch studied at New York University's
film school under Nicholas Ray. Jarmusch has won a Camera d'Or at Cannes
and has established himself as a rare American auteur. A favorite trope
is the foreigner on a pilgrimage through a new landscape, surrounded
by uncommunicative and dysfunctional eccentrics. Jim Jarmusch wrote and
directed "Stranger Than Paradise," "
Down
By Law," "Mystery Train," "Dead Man," "Year of the Horse," and the
forthcoming "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai."
Mark Pauline
Is the founder of Survival Research Laboratories, an organization of creative technicians dedicated to re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations. SRL stages presentations consisting of a unique set of ritualized interactions between machines, robots, and special effects devices, employed in developing themes of socio-political satire.
Woody and Steina Vasulka
Steina and Woody Vasulka, key figures in the history of video art, have been working in the medium since the 1960s. In 1971 the Vasulkas founded the Kitchen, a space devoted to electronic media, video, cinema, music and perfornance, which has had a significant impact on the alternative scene in New York. With Steina, Woody has been artist in residence at the National Center for Experiments in Television (NCET), at KQED in San Francisco, and at WNET/Thirteen in New York. Woody has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Guggenheim Foundation. His recent video installations include Theater of Hybrid Automata (1990) and The Brotherhood series (1998). Steina's recent work focuses on the Southwest desert landscape, and has produced major multiscreen installations, such as Scapes (1986), Ptolemy(1986) and Geomania (1989). She has recieved the Maya Deren Award from The American Film Institute and the Siemens Media Art Prize. The Philidelphiia Museum of Art recently featured a major retrospective of her work.
Annie Sprinkle
Has written articles about sex for Penthouse, Hustler, Arts Magazine, Utne Reader, and The Drama Revue. Her writings have appeared in several books, among them Angry Women, Ritual Sex, and Whores and Feminists. She makes beautiful paintings using her breasts as brushes called Tit Prints. At present she is completing a documentary titled Orgasm Scrapbook.
Robert Venosa
The Fantastic Realism
of Robert Venosa has been exhibited worldwide and is represented in major
collections. In addition to painting and sculpture, he is involved in film
design. He has created pre-sketches and conceptual design for the films
Dune,
Fire in the Sky, and Race for
Atlantis
for IMAX. His work has been the subject of three books, and has been featured
in OMNI magazine, and on a number of CD covers, including those of
Santana and Kitaro.
Lewis John Carlino
Internationally renowned film director and screenwriter. He directed The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea, and The Great Santini. His screenwriting credits include Seconds (with Rock Hudson), directed by John Frankenheimer. He received an Academy Awards nomination for best screenplay for I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977).
Ben Neill
Works in the intersection
of live music and interactive audio-visual performance. From 1995 to 1998
he was the curator of the music program of the prestigious contemporary
art center The Kitchen, in New York City. His albums include
Green
Machine, originally presented as an interactive multimedia installation
at the prestigious Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, and Trypticals.
Tom Robbins
Is a best-selling
novelist known for his unusual plots and style. His first novel, Another
Roadside Attraction, was followed by Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, which
was made into a movie in 1993 by Gus Van Sant. His widely acclaimed novels
include: Skinny Legs and All, and Half Asleep in
Frog
Pajamas.
Additional presenters will be announced soon. Please
visit our website at:
www.levity.com/eschaton/allchemicalsplash.html
Conference fee is US $1,500 per person for the
six days of action-packed programs, hotel accommodations in Hawaii (2 registrants
per double room) in a first-class resort, plus three delicious meals daily
(
vegetarian
fare available). It will not be possible to book alternate accommodations
and attend merely the presentations. You may of course choose to room together
with a registered friend or spouse. A limited number of single rooms are
available for a $200 supplement to the conference registration. Fee does
not include travel to the hotel, located 7 miles (10 min.) south of Kona
International Airport in Hawaii's big island. Sessions commence at 11:00
AM in the hotel conference room, and close at noon on the final day; additional
room and meal charges will be your responsibility and payable directly
to the hotel. Should you wish to arrive before, (or stay after) the conference
opening and closing dates, you must make reservations directly with the
hotel---we are unable to reserve nor confirm such. Upon registration, we
will send you the telephone and fax numbers for the hotel.. Please note
that all registrants and all faculty members will stay at the same hotel.
Please remit check or money order (sorry, no credit cards) for full, non-refundable
fee (unless conference is cancelled for unforeseen reasons beyond our control)
to reserve your space, and please include your telephone number and single
room request and supplement, if so desired. Space is limited so we suggest
early registration to avoid a disappointment. We request you submit a one-page
biography detailing salient education and background. The lectures and
panel discussions are geared to interested aficionados, and are easily
accessible to neophytes-whereas experts will find ample opportunities for
personal interaction with our slate of renowned artists. On receipt of
your registration, we will confirm your acceptance and remit all requisite
details about the conference.
Consider joining us in Hawaii this September for a celebration of the effects of hallucinogens on the creative process. I will look forward to hearing back from you ASAP. Only one hundred registrants will be accepted.
You may contact us through the AllChemical Arts number 626-355-7893 or
e mail directly to registrar Ken at
Perigee63@aol.com
Please make your check or
money order payable to AllChemical Arts and remit to: P.O. Box 204 Sierra
Madre, CA 91025 phone: (626) 355-7893 fax: (626) 355-4293