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New Worlds and Ways of Seeing: Art After Postmodernism

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Is there a tension regarding the presence According to the editors of After Postmod- and role of at MAPS confer- ernism: An Introduction to Critical Realism, isences that otherwise focus on psychedelic “A buzzword which began as an emerg- science? I have heard concerns that the ing, radical critique became, by the 20th inclusion of visionary art could be a non Century’s end, a buzzword for fracture, sequitur that detracts attention and legiti- eclecticism, political apathy and intellectual macy from a controversial academic field—a exhaustion…[A] new and different intel- nuisance at best, and at worst a liability. As lectual direction must come after postmod- an alternative to this view, I would like to ernism…because [it] is inadequate as an propose one specific rationale for its inclu- intellectual response to the times we live in.” sion and its relevance to MAPS’ pioneering „‰{„ ‚V}ƒw‚Dy ƒ medical research: The time is ripe, I will Visionary art is a performative alternative to argue, for visionary art to explode into the the outdated notion of a secular, ironic post- tides are turning. A few months ago, New academic art scene, which would in turn modernism that the academic art world still York Times art critic Ken Johnson published provide an invigorated funding source for holds onto. “Performatism,” a word coined a new book, Are You Experienced?: How psychedelic research by circulating the cul- by German scholar Raoul Eshelman in his Psychedelic Consciousness Transformed tural capital within the community. MAPS, in book Performatism, or the End of Postmod- . [Editor’s Note: See David Jay other words, has the potential to help popu- ernism, provides an alternative frame. In Brown’s interview with Ken Johnson in this larize an art form that the academy is finally contrast to critiques and fractures, performa- issue.] positioned to take seriously—and which will tive works create their own lineages and materially benefit all sides of the equation. perspectives. Instead of disrupting the exist- Johnson’s argument is that the influence of ing world, they create new worlds and ways psychedelics on art is more than a matter of Although it has received remarkably little of seeing: performances in and of context. what mind-altering substance a particular scholarly attention as yet, the rise of vision- artist was on at a particular time. It was ary art is a landmark event in the history Visionary art is a performative approach to actually the much larger macro-level culture of aesthetics and philosophy. It offers an the conscious construction of a sustainable, that tripped out in the ‘60s—many artists alternative to the “postmodern” thinking aesthetically inspired worldview. In opposi- were inspired by psychedelics without ever that still preoccupies many scholars of tion to secular irony, the visionary art of having had personal experiences with the humanities across disciplines, despite , Amanda Sage, Michael Divine, psychedelic compounds. a search for more practical alternatives. Adam Scott Miller, Andrew Jones and oth- Notably, a Google Books search for “after ers is spiritual, optimistic, and performative— Johnson’s book is a monumental contribu- postmodernism” produces over 8,500 which is to say it aims to do something, to tion to art history in that it “opens a field of results. Although a definition of postmodern- introduce new symbolic frames and create inquiry that has lain inexplicably fallow for ism is difficult to pin down, due in part to an ritualistic spaces wherein personal and col- half a century.” It demonstrates a psyche- emphasis on difference and the rejection of lective identities can be consciously shaped delic aspect of beyond the the label by many of its own most influential and refashioned. standard associations of fractal patterns thinkers. Postmodernism is often related to and black light posters. But Johnson himself the absence of concrete perspectives and Performatism is a paradigm of identity with- admits, at the end of his book, that post- the ironic coexistence of symbols and time out attachment. It is based on a principle of modernism as a paradigm has likely seen frames. creative exploration of potential—possible its heyday—and that something new must worlds, ways of knowing, states of being, arrive to fill its place. In the conventional version of art history, forms of communication and communion— postmodernism emerged as a reaction without searching for a final resting point. The visionary artists promoted by MAPS fit to modernism’s fascination with objective Creative decisions are seen as probes for the bill for a significantly novel paradigm— rationality, grand narratives, and universal further possibilities, rather than as all- one where psychedelic-inspired visionary principles. In place of these, postmodernism consuming limitations that close possibilities art is recognized for its aesthetic and turned to cultural relativity and institutional down. historical importance. Johnson’s book is an critique. It opened the door for novel and opening towards this possibility from within minority perspectives. Truth became relative, Although visionary art and other affirma- the mainstream, and the next step has not and common foundations slipped away. tional performances have so far remained yet been taken. That next step is where we under the radar of academia and the high are now, and MAPS can only benefit from art marketplace, there are signs that the Š‰ {wˆ‚ „Œ{‰Šƒ{„Š‰D©