Hallucinations

What Are Hallucinations?

If you're like most folks, you probably think hallucinations have to do with seeing things that aren't really there. But there's a lot more to it than that. It could mean you touch or even smell something that doesn't exist.

There are also a lot of different causes. It could be a mental illness called schizophrenia or a nervous system problem like Parkinson's disease.

If you or a loved one has a hallucination, you need to get checked by a doctor. You can get treatments that help control them, but a lot depends on what's behind the trouble.

Types of Hallucinations

Hearing voices. Your doctor may call this an "auditory hallucination." You may sense that the sounds are coming from inside or outside your mind. You might hear the voices talking to each other or feel like they're telling you to do something.

Seeing things. This is also known as a "visual hallucination." For example, you might see insects crawling on your hand or on the face of someone you know.

Sometimes they look like flashes of light. A rare type of seizure called "occipital" may cause you to see brightly colored spots or shapes.

Smell things that aren't there. The technical name for this is "olfactory hallucination." You may think the odor is coming from something around you, or that it's coming from your own body.

False sense of taste. These are called "gustatory hallucinations." You may feel that something you eat or drink has an odd taste.

Feel things that don't exist. Doctors call this a "tactile hallucination." It might seem to you that you're being tickled even when no one else is around, or you may have a sense that insects are crawling on or under your skin. You might feel a blast of hot air on your face that isn't real.

What Causes Hallucinations?

-Schizophrenia . More than 70% of people with this illness get visual hallucinations, and 60%-90% hear voices. But some may also smell and taste things that aren't there.

-Parkinson's disease . Up to half of people who have this condition sometimes see things that aren't there.

Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. They cause changes in the brain that can bring on hallucinations. It may be more likely to happen when your disease is more advanced.

Migraines. About a third of people with this kind of headache also have an "aura," a type of visual hallucination. It can look like a multi-coloured crescent of light.

Brain tumour . Depending on where it's located, it can cause different types of hallucinations. If it's in an area that has to do with vision, you may see things that aren't real. You might also see spots or shapes of light.

Tumors in some parts of the brain can cause hallucinations of smell and taste.

Charles Bonnet syndrome. This condition causes people with vision problems like macular degeneration, glaucoma, or cataracts to see things. At first, you may not realize it's a hallucination, but eventually you figure out that what you're seeing isn't real.

Epilepsy . The seizures that go along with this disorder can make you more likely to have hallucinations. The type you get depends on which part of your brain the seizure affects.

How Are Hallucinations Treated?

First your doctor needs to find out what's causing them. He'll take your medical history and do a physical exam. He'll ask about your symptoms.

You may need tests to help identify the problem. For instance, an EEG (electroencephalogram) checks for unusual patterns of electrical activity in your brain. It could show if your hallucinations are due to seizures.

You might get an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), which uses powerful magnets and radio waves to make pictures of structures inside your body. It can find out if a brain tumor or something else, like an area that's had a small stroke, could be causing your hallucinations.

Your doctor will treat the underlying condition that's causing the hallucinations. The treatment can include things like:

Medication for schizophrenia or dementias such as Alzheimer's disease

Anticonvulsant drugs to treat epilepsy

Treatment for macular degeneration, glaucoma, and cataracts

Surgery or radiation to treat tumours

Drugs called triptans, beta-blockers, or anticonvulsants for people with migraines

Sessions with a therapist can also help. For example, cognitive-behavioral therapy, which focuses on changes in thinking and behavior, helps some people manage their symptoms better.

My Respod:

I did not realise how many different reasons there is for hallucinations. I did not realise that illnesses could cause hallucinations. I am particularly interested in the hallucinations caused my drugs and I am going to explore this further.

Drugs

Psychedelic drug

LSD is widely known as a psychedelic drug and often features psychedelic artwork on its blotters

A psychedelic substance is a psychoactive drug whose primary action is to alter cognition and perception, typically by agonising serotonin receptors. Psychedelics are part of a wider class of psychoactive drugs known as hallucinogens, a class that also includes mechanistically unrelated substances such as dissociatives and deliriants. Unlike other drugs such as stimulants and opioids which induce familiar states of consciousness, psychedelics tend to affect the mind in ways that result in the experience being qualitatively different from those of ordinary consciousness. The psychedelic experience is often compared to non-ordinary forms of consciousness such as trance, meditation, yoga, religious ecstasy, dreaming and even near-death experiences. With a few exceptions, most psychedelic drugs fall into one of the three following families of chemical compounds; tryptamines, phenethylamines, and lysergamides.

Many psychedelic drugs are illegal worldwide under the UN conventions unless used in a medical or religious context, such as medical cannabis or ayahuasca. Despite these regulations, recreational use of psychedelics is common.

60's Fashion and Textiles

History of 1960s Fashion and Textiles

The 1960s was a decade of sweeping change throughout the fashion world generating ideas and images which still appear modern today. Whereas fashion had previously been aimed at a wealthy, mature elite, the tastes and preferences of young people now became important. At the beginning of the decade, the market was dominated by Parisian designers of expensive haute couture garments. Formal suits for women underwent a structural change resulting in looser lines and shorter skirts.

Yet the shape of clothes was soon transformed by new ideas emerging from the London pop scene. In Britain, musical taste and styles of dress were closely linked and it was the mod look which first popularised the simple geometric shapes typical of the 1960s. By the mid-sixties, the flared A-line was in style for dresses, skirts and coats. Slim fitting, brightly coloured garments were sold cheaply in boutiques all over 'Swinging London' and had tremendous influence throughout  Europe and the US.

Men's suits became sleeker and were often accessorised with bright, bold shirts and high-heeled boots. The flamboyant look was in, signalled by wider trousers and lapels, like those belonging to the blue checked Tommy Nutter suit seen below. Designers experimented with shiny new waterproof materials with a modern look like PVC and perspex. Paco Rabanne pioneered dresses made from plastic discs and metal links which looked more like sculpture than clothing.

Later in the decade the hippy look, which originated on the West Coast of America, crossed the Atlantic. This was a time when designers of dress and textiles experimented with colours, patterns and textures borrowed from non-Western cultures. As ethnic influences took over, the most fashionable people wore long layers of loose clothing in vivid, clashing colours, typified by Thea Porter's kaftans and Pucci's dazzling prints.

My Respond:

As I am looking at the word psychedelia, and after researching and finding out that it all began in the 60’s I wanted to explore my passion for textiles and find out what fashion and textiles what like then and was it as crazy and fun as the psychedelic art. I love how the fashion changed and the designers stated to change their ideas and focus on the younger generation. I love how fashion and textiles got involved within the London pop scene. I like how the fashion changed from haute couture garments to flared A-line, dresses, skirts and coats. Men's suits became sleeker and were often accessorised with bright, bold shirts and high-heeled boots.

Wes Wilson

Wes Wilson

Wes Wilson was born July 15, 1937. He is an American artist and one of the leading designers of psychedelic posters. Best-known for designing posters for Bill Graham of The Fillmore in San Francisco, he invented a style that is now synonymous with the peace movement, psychedelic era and the 1960s. In particular, he is known for inventing and popularizing a "psychedelic" font around 1966 that made the letters look like they were moving or melting. ^[2] It was very common by the 1970s.

Psychedelia-60's

Psychedelic 60s

Psychedelia and the Psychedelic movement-1960-1975

Psychedelic:

   -Pertaining to or characterized by hallucinations, distortions of perception and awareness, and sometimes psychotic-like behavior.

-A drug that produces such effects.

-An art style influenced by the prevalence of hallucinatory drugs, especially LSD, with typical designs featuring abstract swirls of intense color with curvilinear calligraphy reminiscent of Art Nouveau.

The psychedelic movement began in the mid 1960’s and had an effect, not just on music, but also on many aspects of popular culture. This included style of dress, language and the way people spoke, art, literature and philosophy.

The name “psychedelic” refers to drugs that were popular with the youth culture of the time. Posters for rock concerts tried to visually express the feeling of tripping out.

The visual motifs of psychedelic art include Art Nouveau-inspired curvilinear shapes, illegible hand-drawn type, and intense optical colour vibration inspired by the pop art movement.

Background

The end of WWII in 1945 brought about a post-war economic boom in the U.S. It also brought about an enormous spike in the birth rate, known as “the baby boom.” Between 1945 and 1957 nearly 76 million babies were born in America. By the middle 1960s, most of these kids were young adults.

As young people do, these “baby boomers” questioned America’s materialism and conservative cultural and political norms. During the 1960s a youth movement emerged, seeking to create an egalitarian society free from discrimination. The feminist movement and the Black movement are a direct result of this evolution.

Americans in the 1960s and 70s addressed many controversial issues — from civil rights, the Vietnam War, nuclear proliferation, and the environment to drug use, sexual freedom, and nonconformity. Many youth sought spiritual experiences through Eastern Mysticism and psychedelic drugs.

Music festivals and concerts were a prominent feature of the 60s landscape, and musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, The Who, Janice Joplin were the super-stars of the day. It’s hard to say whether psychedelic music influenced the counterculture or vice versa. But a unique art form found expression in band posters.

Influential Designers

-Wes Wilson

-Victor Moscoso

The Influence of  Op Art  & Pop Art

Op art, short for Optical art, is a style of abstraction that relies on geometric shapes, lines, and colour juxtapositions to create optical illusions for the viewer. Gaining popularity in the 1960s, such art often features patterns, grids, and effects like curving or diminishing objects. The Op art movement was driven by artists who were interested in investigating various perceptual effects.

“Pop” was a term first applied to popular culture rather than to art, but it would be one of the goals of the Pop art movement to blur the boundaries between ‘high’ art and ‘low’ popular culture.

Pop Art was one of the United States’ major artistic movements of the 20th century. It actually was first coined in Britain in 1955 but unsurprisingly the Americans took up the consumerist cause with much greater effect and conviction, and became the pioneers of the movement. Pop art and pop culture refers to the products of the mass media evolving in the late 1950s and 60s and also to the works of art that draw upon popular culture: packaging, television, advertisements, comic books, the cinema. Pop art attempted to break down the barriers between high (old-fashioned) art and contemporary culture.

Pop Art emphasized the kitschy elements of popular culture as a protest against the elitist art culture and the seriousness that surrounded it. It marked a return to sharp paintwork and representational art. It glorified unappreciated objects and ordinary business. In doing so, it aimed to make art more meaningful for everyday people and came to target a broad audience. Although it gained many supporters for the way it was easy to comprehend, critics saw pop art as vulgar.

Pop Art made its way to the United States in the 1960s with the help of ground-breakers Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.

Roy Lichtenstein became a household name for the way he used stencil-like dots, thick lines, bold colors, and thought bubbles to represent the comic book style. His paintings were the size of billboards.

Andy Warhol became the most famous American pop artist when he used an industrial silkscreen process to paint such commercial objects as Campbell’s soup cans and Coca-cola bottles and for portraying major celebrities like Liz Taylor, Jackie Kennedy, and Marilyn Monroe. As Warhol and Lichtenstein brought together elements of sign painting, commercial art and literary imagery in their work, they became renowned for erasing the boundaries between popular and high culture.

Psychedelia-Spider Diagram

I would class myself as a ...

      I feel like I am a …  

      

            I would class myself as an artist rather than a designer. I like to express myself through art and I feel like this is not suitable for design. I like to decide what Im making and evoking but in design you cannot do that as design is about communication and function. Art can rely entirely on aesthetics alone, and artists embark on journeys of exploration and experimentation. Design has a function to achieve a purpose.I like how art is open to interpretation and opinions by the viewer by any way but design is designed specifically at an audience to give out a specific message.I like how my work can get any reaction out of an audience but never the same opinion. Art exists for itself. It’s innovative, expressive and sometimes shocking.

What is the difference between Art and Design?

What is the difference between Art and Design?

There is a lot in common between art and design, but they’re not the same. At times, the lines between the two disciplines become blurred, but the distinctions remain and are important to understand. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, art and design were blended in beauty, purpose and craftsmanship. During that era, the two disciplines separated. Design remained practical and commercial while art for art’s sake allowed for the pursuit of creative expression as a singular goal and took off in another direction.

Despite their differences, we need to acknowledge what these two disciplines have in common:

-They’re both visual and belong to the broader category of visual art.

-They both incorporate the aesthetic principles

-Practitioners in both fields need knowledge of history, past movements and current trends.

-Both are highly creative activities involving processes that require time, observation and thinking.

The dividing line between art and design is drawn by the purpose of each:

-Art allows for self-expression. The artist decides what he or she wants to evoke and works toward that end. It is self-satisfying.

-Design is communication and function in visual form, created for the general population or a segment of it. Design addresses stated needs and solves problems.

-Art can rely entirely on aesthetics alone, and artists embark on journeys of exploration and experimentation. Design marries aesthetics with function to achieve a purpose.

-Art is open to interpretation by the viewer.

-Design cannot be interpretive but must communicate specifically and clearly to its intended audience.

-Art is elitist, meaning that it is viewed in galleries and museums, exhibited away from the mainstream of everyday experience. One looks at art and may or may not have a significant experience.

-Design is seen and experienced by just about everyone in the course of a day. One uses design. Web sites, packaging, billboards, print advertising, newspaper layouts, fashion, signage, interior spaces, smart phone apps, products and appliances all have been designed for both visual appeal and practical use.

-Art exists for itself. It’s innovative, expressive and sometimes shocking.

-Design is practical and carefully crafted. It supports business, commerce, marketing, entertainment, journalism, communications and causes.

-Artists stand in front of their work and get to put their signatures on it in plain view. Designers stand behind their work and remain unknown for the most part.

Futurism

Futurism

Futurism (Italian: Futurismo) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized speed, technology, youth and violence and objects such as the car, the aeroplane and the industrial city.

The New Look

The New Look

A style of women's clothing introduced in 1947 by Christian Dior, featuring calf-length full skirts and a generous use of material in contrast to wartime austerity.

Chinoiserie

Chinoiserie

Chinoiserie, derived from the French word Chinois, meaning “Chinese" is the European interpretation and imitation of Chinese and East Asian artistic traditions, especially in the decorative arts, garden design, architecture, literature, theater, and musical performances. First appearing in the 17th century, this trend was popularized in the 18th century due to the rise in trade with China and East Asia. Chinoiserie pictorial art is characterized by asymmetry, an emphasis on the decorative, and a rejection of Renaissance illusionism. It offered an alternative to the Classical-revival and Baroque styles that were popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. Whimsical and light in subject matter and appearance, chinoiserie, similar to the Rococo style, provided an option for anyone who wanted to reject the more rigid classicist notions that were prominent.

Chinoiserie is sometimes considered as "feminine." Prevailing wisdom suggested that part of the appeal that chinoiserie held for women was that it could be appreciated by the "untutored eye." The understanding of its aesthetics did not require an education in philosophy or the classics. Chinoiserie decoration was more frequently confined to the private spaces of a house, for example bedrooms and dressing rooms. These spaces were more associated with women than the more public areas of reception rooms, dining rooms or libraries which were considered the territory of men or mixed company.

Chinoiserie was not universally popular. Some members of society saw the style as "…a retreat from reason and taste and a descent into a morally ambiguous world based on hedonism, sensation and values perceived to be feminine." It was viewed as lacking the logic and reason upon which Antique art had been founded. Architect and author Robert Morris claimed that it "…consisted of mere whims and chimera, without rules or order, it requires no fertility of genius to put into execution.” Those with a more archaeological view of the East, considered the chinoiserie style, with its distortions and whimsical approach, to be a mockery of the actual Chinese art and architecture.Finally, still others believed that an interest in Chinoiserie indicated a pervading "cultural confusion" in European society.

Folk Art

Folk Art

Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic. Folk Art is characterized by a naïve style, in which traditional rules of proportion and perspective

are not employed.As a phenomenon that can chronicle a move towards civilization yet rapidly diminish with modernity, industrialization, or outside influence, the nature of folk art is specific to its particular culture. The varied geographical and temporal prevalence and diversity of folk art make it difficult to describe as a whole, though some patterns have been demonstrated.

Arts and Crafts Movement

The Arts and Crafts Movement

The Arts and Crafts Movement was one of the most influential, profound and far-reaching design movements of modern times. It began in Britain around 1880 and quickly spread across America and Europe before emerging finally as the Mingei (Folk Crafts) movement in Japan.

It was a movement born of ideals. It grew out of a concern for the effects of industrialisation: on design, on traditional skills and on the lives of ordinary people. In response, it established a new set of principles for living and working. It advocated the reform of art at every level and across a broad social spectrum, and it turned the home into a work of art.

The Movement took its name from the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, founded in 1887, but it encompassed a very wide range of like-minded societies, workshops and manufacturers. Other countries adapted Arts and Crafts philosophies according to their own needs. While the work may be visually very different, it is united by the ideals that lie behind it.

This was a movement unlike any that had gone before. Its pioneering spirit of reform, and the value it placed on the quality of materials and design, as well as life,

shaped the world we live in today.

In Britain the disastrous effects of industrial manufacture and unregulated trade had been recognised since about 1840, but it was not until the 1860s and 1870s that architects, designers and artists began to pioneer new approaches to design and the decorative arts. These, in turn, led to the foundation of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

The two most influential figures were the theorist and critic John Ruskin and the designer, writer and activist William Morris. Ruskin examined the relationship between art, society and labour. Morris put Ruskin's philosophies into practice, placing great value on work, the joy of craftsmanship and the natural beauty of materials.

By the 1880s Morris had become an internationally renowned and commercially successful designer and manufacturer. New guilds and societies began to take up his ideas, presenting for the first time a unified approach among architects, painters, sculptors and designers. In doing so, they brought Arts and Crafts ideals to a wider public.

Psychedelia

Psychedelia

Psychedelic art is any art or visual displays inspired by psychedelic experiences and hallucinations known to follow the ingestion of psychoactive drugs such as LSD and psilocybin. The word "psychedelic" (coined by British psychologist Humphry Osmond) means "mind manifesting". By that definition, all artistic efforts to depict the inner world of the psyche may be considered "psychedelic". In common parlance "psychedelic art" refers above all to the art movement of the late 1960s counterculture. Psychedelic visual arts were a counterpart to psychedelic rock music. Concert posters, album covers, lightshows, murals, comic books, underground newspapers and more reflected not only the kaleidoscopically swirling colour patterns of LSD hallucinations, but also revolutionary political, social and spiritual sentiments inspired by insights derived from these psychedelic states of consciousness.

Feminism

Feminism 

Feminism is a range of political movements, ideologies and social movements that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for women.This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. A feminist advocates or supports the rights and equality of women. Feminist movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women's rights, including the right to vote, to hold public office, to work, to earn fair wages or equal pay, to own property, to receive education, to enter contracts, to have equal rights within marriage, and to have maternity leave. Feminists have also worked to promote bodily autonomy and integrity, and to protect women and girls from rape, sexual harassment, and domestic violence.Feminist campaigns are generally considered to be one of the main forces behind major historical societal changes for women's rights, particularly in the West, where they are near-universally credited with having achieved women's suffrage, gender neutrality in English, reproductive rights for women (including access to contraceptives and abortion), and the right to enter into contracts and own property.Although feminist advocacy is and has been mainly focused on women's rights, some feminists, including bell hooks, argue for the inclusion of men's liberation within its aims because men are also harmed by traditional gender roles. Feminist theory, which emerged from feminist movements, aims to understand the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experience; it has developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues such as the social construction of gender.

Secessionism

Secessionism

Secession refers to a number of modernist artist groups that separated from the support of official academic art and its administrations in the late 19th and early 20th century. The first secession from the official politics occurred in France, when, in 1890, the "Salon au Champs-de-Mars" was established, headed by Meissonnier and Puvis de Chavannes. In the years following artists in various European countries took up this impulse, primarily in Germany, Austria–Hungary, and Belgium, which 'seceded' from traditional art movements and embraced progressive styles. The first secession outside France formed in Munich in 1892, followed by the Vienna Secession formed 5 years later in 1897. The best-known secession movement was the Vienna Secession formed in 1897, and included Gustav Klimt, who favoured the ornate Art Nouveau style over the prevailing styles of the time. The style of these artists, as practiced in Austria is known as Sezessionstil, or "Secession style".

Systems Art

Systems Art

Systems art is art influenced by cybernetics, and systems theory, that reflects on natural systems, social systems and social signs of the art world itself. Systems art emerged as part of the first wave of the conceptual art movement extended in the 1960s and 1970s. Closely related and overlapping terms are Anti-form movement, Cybernetic art, Generative Systems, Process art, Systems aesthetic, Systemic art, Systemic painting and Systems sculptures. Systems Art seeks to discover the Systematic in all forms of Art, while also applying ideas from Systems Theory to the creation of new Art. The ideas from Systems Theory that are applied include systems analysis, systems process analysis and systems description. These methods, common in large engineering projects, are every bit as applicable in creative art.

Expressionism

Expressionism

Expressionism is a  term used to denote the use of distortion and exaggeration for emotional effect, which first surfaced in the art literature of the early twentieth century. When applied in a stylistic sense, with reference in particular to the use of intense colour, agitated brushstrokes, and disjointed space. Rather than a single style, it was a climate that affected not only the fine arts but also dance, cinema, literature and the theatre.

Expressionism is an artistic style in which the artist attempts to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in him. He accomplishes his aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements. In a broader sense Expressionism is one of the main currents of art in the later 19th and the 20th centuries, and its qualities of highly subjective, personal, spontaneous self-expression are typical of a wide range of modern artists and art movements.

Rococo

Rococo

Rococo is an 18th-century artistic movement and style, affecting many aspects of the arts including painting, sculpture, architecture, interior design, decoration literature, music, and theatre. It developed in the early 18th century in Paris, France as a reaction against the grandeur, symmetry, and strict regulations of the Baroque, especially of the Palace of Versailles. Rococo artists and architects used a more jocular, florid, and graceful approach to the Baroque. Their style was ornate and used light colours, asymmetrical designs, curves, and gold. Unlike the political Baroque, the Rococo had playful and witty themes. The interior decoration of Rococo rooms was designed as a total work of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings. The Rococo was also important in theatre. The book The Rococo states that no other culture "has produced a wittier, more elegant, and teasing dialogue full of elusive and camouflaging language and gestures, refined feelings and subtle criticism" than Rococo theatre, especially that of France.

I am interested in the interior design style of Rococo. Intimate Rococo interiors suppress architectonic divisions of architrave, frieze, and cornice for the picturesque, the curious, and the whimsical, expressed in plastic materials like carved wood and above all stucco. Walls, ceiling, furniture, and works of metal and porcelain present a unified ensemble. The Rococo palette is softer and paler than the rich primary colours and dark tonalities favoured in Baroque tastes.