From Steve Jobs to the Beatles, many of Western culture's most brilliant minds hold a special place in their hearts for LSD, the psychedelic substance that Timothy Leary once said "allow us to peer into bits and zones of Chaos." Although Leary's description sounds intriguing, if you haven't dropped acid yourself it's hard to imagine what these "bits and zones of Chaos" actually look like. That's where Chelsea Morgan comes in.
Morgan creates hallucinatory photographs that mimic the effects of the drug, giving viewers a small taste of the tripping experience. Her boyfriend Joseph Edmunds also explores the mysterious effects of LSD on his blog Disregard Everything I Say. We reached out to the couple to learn more about their explorations in communicating the incommunicable effects of the substance.
(Scroll down for a slideshow.)
HP: What is your process for manipulating these photos?
CM: I use two different pieces of editing software to create my images, Adobe Photoshop and Coral Paint Shop Pro X and all of the images used are taken by me.
Although the images I have created are accurate in appearance they do not come close to the real thing simply because the factors of impossible complexity and continuous movement within these distortions play a crucial role.
HP: What exactly is "symmetrical texture repetition"?
JE: Symmetrical texture repetition is just one of many complex visual distortions or alterations which consistently occur throughout psychedelic experiences on substances such as LSD, Psilocin, Ayahuasca, Mescaline, 2C-B, 2C-E and many others.
It can be described as the organization of rough textures within the external environment becoming mirrored repeatedly over its own surface in an extremely intricate and symmetrical fashion that is consistent across itself. This remains at an unchanging level of extremely high detail and visual clarity within both a person's direct line of visual focus and peripheral vision.
As these repeating textures are generated they begin to give rise to a huge array of abstract forms, imagery, geometry and patterns that are perceived to be embedded within and across the symmetry.
HP: How would you describe the relationship between drugs and art?
JE: Deep psychedelic hallucinatory experiences show anybody who chooses to undergo them that there is an infinite neurological universe within each and every one of us that has existed all along... This shows all of us that we as a species have barely scratched the surface in terms of the infinite possibilities regarding our creative output.
Check out Morgan's trippy images in the slideshow below and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
