We are experiencing a psychedelic renaissance not seen since the 1960s, but today psychedelics emphasize mental balance, creativity and positivity, and it could prove a powerful tool to help elevate people’s consciousness to work together to solve global problems. The psychedelic resurgence presented in these pages is just revving up. It has the potential to dramatically change how we perceive the world. Can happy things put one in a better mood? And if everyone is in a better mood, does the world become happier? If people believe it, and move toward it, then this hopeful fantasy could become our collective reality.
This colorful volume explores the contemporary psychedelic aesthetic unfolding in the cultural zeitgeist across fashion, art, design, architecture and lifestyle. Consider Yayoi Kusama’s bright polka-dotted fantasy worlds, Marni x No Vacancy Inn’s vibrant beach Africana, artist duo FriendsWithYou’s ecstatic rainbows and candy-colored kawaii creatures or Burning Man habitué Bjarke Ingels’s utopian optic architecture.
Author Julia Chaplin elaborates four distinct themes: Rainbow Utopists (rapper A$AP Rocky, designer Marco Ribeiro), Afrofuturists (musician George Clinton, rapper-designer Kid Cudi), Cosmic Technophiles (stage designer Es Devlin, artist Leo Villareal) and Spiritualizers (artists Olafur Eliasson and James Turrell), all dreaming and working toward a brighter world.