COP3 - Lets Do This!

After receiving the immensely positive feedback from my COP2 project and essay, I am really excited to begin my research for third year and get stuck into an area of focus that seems to have everyone including myself intrigued and eager to know more. Since COP2, I have had a lot of friends and family sending me interesting articles and artistic projects surrounding the recent re-surfacing of Psychedelia, the interest has been more than I could have ever imagined and this has given me the confidence to carry on pursuing my topic and hopefully make something really worthwhile come from it.

I am very aware at this early stage how broad my topic is and how varied my approaches to it could end up being, therefore I think now is the time to start narrowing my focus with the help of careful research, considerations and decision making. I covered a lot in my COP2 project and the last thing I want to do is go down a path I have already covered. COP3 to me is the opportunity to now be concise and uncover new and interesting avenues in which I can do justice with my dissertation as well as respond to visually in an interesting and engaging way.

To Do

• Be reflective of my COP2 feedback. COP3 is continuing on from the same topic, therefore I need to learn from any mistakes made and address areas for improvements and new possibilities for taking this project further.
• Go over previous ideas. I had a huge amount of varied ideas for COP2 (mainly for visual responses to my topic) that I never visited or even touched upon. It may be good to have a look at some of these and begin exploring any that could hold potential for COP3.
• Continue documenting research, findings and thoughts on my blog. This can remain broad until further direction has been received by way of my COP3 proposal feedback
• Wait for COP3 feedback from Richard
• Respond to & answer this feedback. Begin new avenues of research - both academically and visually.
• Get involved. My topic is quite personal to me for a lot of reasons and another element to my research could be what I find out first hand. I am interested to know about peoples experiences with psychedelic substances, positive and negative, creative or not and gain better knowledge of its place within society. This could take the form of another more in depth survey, asking the public the questions I want to know answers too. I am also attending a festival in a few weeks where I plan on sitting in on various talks on the subject and could speak to organisers and festival goers about their personal thoughts and opinions.
• Mindmap more concise avenues for further research and new ways to push this project forward. This should help me to think outside of the box and unlock the potential for new and interesting ideas
• Start new COP3 sketchbook and begin to respond to my new findings creatively. 
• GET IDEAS DOWN

1970's Japanese Psychedelia

"Belladonna of Sadness" - 1970's Psychedelic Japanese Animation
http://www.juxtapoz.com/news/film/belladonna-of-sadness-psychedelic-japanese-erotica-animated/

"Belladonna of Sadness" is a 1973 feature film produced by the Japanese animation studio Mushi Production and distributor Nippon Herald Films. It follows the story of Jeanne, a peasant woman who is raped which leads to her being accused of witchcraft, and is notable for its graphic and suggestively erotic, violent and psychedelic imagery.

A medieval French farm couple, Jean and Jeanne, wish to marry and ask the local lord for his blessing. The lord demands a fee, and when the poor couple can't pay it, he takes Jeanne as his court's sexual plaything. Jeanne is raped and left in tatters, then rejected by her husband as unclean. Alone in the woods, she is visited by the devil — looking rather like an erect penis — who offers her power to smite her oppressors in exchange for her soul.

Director Eiichi Yamamoto borrows from Jules Michelet's 19th-century history of satanism and witchcraft, "La Sorcière," to give the narrative the feel of a dark folktale, backed by '70s pop music (written by Masahiko Satoh and sung by Chinatsu Nakayama, the film's narrator).

The visuals, starting with static line drawings and morphing into kaleidoscopic images reminiscent of "Yellow Submarine" and Gustav Klimt paintings, capture Jeanne's transformation from sexual victim to conquerer and back again. The results are sometimes disturbing, sometimes beautiful and always fascinating."

Notes

Links to the history of psychedelia culture and how psychedelics have influenced creativity in different countries (other than western society and culture). 
Possible direction for CoP3: The impact of psychedelics in other cultures. Non- western Psychedelia...How psychedelics have impacted creative culture / art across the world? From shamanic artwork to Japanese gaming / movies / animation? 

OUIL501 Final Essay

History of Psychedelics

https://www.sociedelic.com/a-history-of-psychedelics/



Notes

A true to America look at the indepth histry of psychadelics on society and American culture.

"In his new book, Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America, author Jesse Jarnow explores how people use LSD for ideas and then take their ideas to the world, fostering a sort of psychedelic renaissance that overlaps the tech, music and art spheres that have transformed our society. Jarnow claims people journey to the nether zone of psychedelics, absorbing ideas and then vamoosing to share their discoveries with the world. I spoke to Jarnow about his new book, psychedelics in America and how the heads spawned from the LSD underground have influenced pop culture, business and the way we live our lives today."