Altered States
“The very definition of the real has become: that of which it is impossible to give an equivalent reproduction.”—Jean Beaudrillard, Simulacra and Simulations
“The truth of art lies in its power to break the monopoly of established reality (i.e., of those who established it) to define what is real.”—Herbert Marcuse, The Aesthetic Dimension
The expression “altered states” makes many people think of the effect of controlled substances on the brain, or perhaps the Ken Russell cult classic of the same name, in which William Hurt transforms himself into a primitive man through sensory deprivation and the use of… controlled substances. But the drug experience is just a neat metaphor for what we all know and understand 21st-century life to be: a single continuous altered state. In this day and age, you don’t have to be a fancy philosopher to realize that reality is endlessly mediated, managed, and manufactured. We can see this in our cities and our entertainments, our politicians and our systems of communication and exchange. So if reality is something contingent and relative, and not pure or absolute, how then do we proceed? What can we trust?
One solution is to remember that actual humans still lurk behind the facades and empty forms of modern existence. Who are they? What do they think about? What do they care about?
RES Vol. 9, No. 1
“Altered Sates”
Jan/Feb 2006
