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Hej everyone!
There are several events coming up that I want to let you know about. But first, I just recently posted a bunch of collages up at my Etsy store. Visit Trapart Unique Works at Etsy! The Meta bots hate my art. They're constantly taking it down and sending me notifications that my art violates community standards. My accounts are always "temporarily" limited, so it's difficult for me to share my art on social media. Most people DM or email me directly to buy works of art. So hopefully this Etsy store helps (though they've also flagged some of my pieces). Most pieces are listed at around $100 with shipping included. Some pieces that are portraits of icons are priced at $230. Prices are listed in Swedish Kronor, so you can use https://www.xe.com/ to convert to your currency. Also if you ever see me post a piece you like but don't see it on the Etsy, feel free to message me. I may still have it and you can buy it directly.
Coming up Wednesday, April 26th I'll be giving a talk on Freud and the Occult via The Last Tuesday Society at the Victor Wynd Museum, online at 8PM UK (21 CEST / 3PM EDT / 12PM PDT)
The next installment of our Psychoanalysis, Art & the Occult series at Morbid Anatomy Museum is coming up Sunday, April 16th live via zoom at 2PM NYC / 7PM UK / 20 CEST.
Westworld: Anton LaVey’s Total Environments, Gamification and Ghosts in the Machines with Anders Lundgren and Caligula as a Dionysian Affirmation of Life with River, An Online Presenation
Westworld: Anton LaVey’s Total Environments, Gamification & Ghosts in the Machines
By Anders Lundgren
Westworld was originally the brainchild of blockbuster maven Michael Crichton who both wrote and directed the 1973 motion picture. The idea of immersive theme parks where rich people could let off steam by living out fantasies of a violent and/or sexual nature without fear of judgment and consequences proved to be a commercial success.
The inevitable sequel Futureworld (1976) and the short lived tv-series (only three out of a total of five episodes were aired originally before cancellation) Beyond Westworld introduced the concept of android doppelgangers and further expanded the ideas presented in the first film. One person who took notice of these was Church of Satan founder Anton Szandor LaVey who referred to Westworld when presenting his ideas for total environments. After lying dormant for most of the 1980s Crichton revived parts of the concept for his novel Jurassic Park in 1990, later turned into yet another record breaking film franchise by Steven Spielberg and others. Westworld returned briefly in the form of video game Westworld 2000 (1996). Despite using then hot CD-ROM technology, sub par graphics and gameplay kept this title from setting the gaming world on fire. This blip was followed by twenty years of silence before a new tv-series premiered on HBO. Easily the most ambitious iteration to date, this version of Westworld leans heavily into previously merely touched upon moral and philosophical implications of the original idea. What would happen if humans were able to create extremely life-like machines that in most cases do not even know that their lives are scripted sequences catering to the enjoyment of others?
Caligula (1979) as a Dionysian Affirmation of Life
By River
The movie Caligula from 1979 is arguably one of the most infamous movies of all time, much like its titular emperor. Mixing lavish sets, Shakespearean guild actors, shocking violence and pornography. The involvement of Bob Guccione and Penthouse caused such conflicts within its creative team that neither the writer, Gore Vidal, nor the director, Tinto Brass, wanted anything to do with the final product. Yet it endures as a cult movie of legendary status. As Helen Mirren said, it is ”an irresistible mix of art and genitals.”
This talk explores the movie and its compelling history through the lens of Dionysian paradox and life affirmation. From a deeply personal perspective it examines trauma, healing and the surprising places the ancient Gods may show up in our modern lives.
Anders Lundgren is a Swedish writer and connoisseur of the uncanny with a background in literature, esthetics and film studies. He has organized numerous film screenings and festivals, domestic and international, as part of Klubb Super 8. He also served as the co-founder and co-curator of the film programme for Serieket (The Comic Book Library) in Stockholm. Working at the latter establishment he has been on the production team for The Stockholm International Comics Festival since 2002. In 2010, he started the podcast Hög av Serier (High on Comics) with co-hosts Anton Bjurvald and Freddie Kaplan. In 2012, he established The Stockholm H. P. Lovecraft Festival. He has been widely published with his main output being the film criticism found in Hemmabio (Home Theater Magazine) and writings on comics in Bild & bubbla (Image & Thought Bubble). He has also contributed to anthologies like The Fenris Wolf, Mignolaverse: Hellboy and the Comics Art of Mike Mignola and Judge, Jury and Executioner: Essays on the Punisher in Print and on Screen. He is a Priest in the Church of Satan.
River is a Swedish artist based in Stockholm. Her work is multidisciplinary with an emphasis on the visual arts. Always drawn to the intersection of art and magic she treats her creative process as a ritualized exploration of her unconscious. In genre terms, she works primarily with the weird and with horror. With an emphasis on craftsmanship, Rivers’ work explores the tension between a brushstroke and what it may represent. The tension between what is real and unreal, where we draw that line, and if there even is a line to draw.
Then on May 14th we have:
The Uncanny in Cinema: Ingmar Bergman’s Hour of the Wolf (1968), An Illustrated Online Lecture with Carl Abrahamsson
Swedish author and filmmaker Carl Abrahamsson presents his reflections on Ingmar Bergman’s masterpiece Hour of the Wolf (1968), situating the film with regard to events in Bergman’s personal life, as well as in the culture and politics of the time more generally.
Abrahamsson also discusses the relationship of Hour of the Wolf (1968) to other films created during Bergman’s “decade of deep introspection,” most notably Persona (1966) and Shame (1968). Abrahamsson contemplates recurring uncanny themes in Bergman’s work, having to do with the dynamism and reciprocity of interpersonal relations, identity and consciousness, and how this can veer into neurosis or psychosis.
This is reflected in the haunting repetition of statements made by Alma (played by Liv Ullmann), “Isn’t it true that couples who spend so much time together begin to resemble one another … they think alike and even look alike. Why is that?”
This presentation is a chapter in Dr. Sinclair’s new edited collection Psychoanalytic Perspectives on the Films of Ingmar Bergman: From Freud to Lacan and Beyond (Routledge, 2023)
Carl Abrahamsson is a Swedish author, publisher and filmmaker. His books include Source Magic(2023), Codex Nordica (2022), Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan (2022), Different People (2021), The Devil’s Footprint (2020), Occulture (2018), Mother, Have a Safe Trip (2016) and The Fenris Wolf series. His films include Reseduction (2022), My Silent Lips (2019), Lunacy (2017), Sub Umbra Alarum Luna(2016) and the An Art Apart series. His publishing company is Trapart Books, Films and Editions.
Then in the autumn we are offering a 4 part course on the cut-up method:
Harnessing the Magic and Creative Power of the Cut-up Method a la William Burroughs, David Bowie, Genesis P-Orridge, Led by Dr. Vanessa Sinclair and Carl Abrahamsson, beginning September 10
Dates: September 10, 17, 24, October 1.
Time: 1 pm – 3 pm EDT
PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time.
The cut-up method was originally discovered by Dada instigator Tristan Tzara. In his 1920 manifesto To Make a Dadaist Poem he teaches us how to create what he called “accidental poems” by cutting words from a newspaper, putting them all into a hat, shaking the contents, and pulling them one by one to create poetry by chance.
At the Beat Hotel in Paris in 1958, creative partners William Burroughs and Brion Gysin rediscovered the cut-up method and elaborated upon it, moving from wordplay to audio recording, film, painting, collage, and further iterations. Gysin and Burroughs had been immersed in the magic of Morocco when they spent time with Paul and Jane Bowles in Tangier, and began to see the magical aspects inherent in their cut-up methodology.
David Bowie collided with William Burroughs and integrated the cut-up method into his way of writing song lyrics. A master of cutting up identity, Bowie played with the performative aspects of persona, gender, and sexuality.
Collectives such as Crass and Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY) experimented with cutting up behavior and expectations through their “life as performance art” philosophies, challenging norms put upon them by parents, family, and society. TOPY intentionally wove magical elements into their creative practices, pulling heavily from the methods of Aleister Crowley and Austin Osman Spare, while idolizing Burroughs and Gysin as creative, magical masters.
TOPY ringleader Genesis P-Orridge harnessed the Third Mind work of Burroughs and Gysin and took their ideas even further, in a project coined Pandrogeny, through which Genesis and he/r other half Lady Jaye Breyer underwent a series of surgical, chemical, behavioral, spiritual, and psychological procedures to break down their individual identities and come together more fully as one. In this life as performance art endeavor, the pair challenged ideas of difference between self/other, man/woman, and even life/death.
In this class, Dr. Vanessa Sinclair and Carl Abrahamsson will review the history and evolution of the cut-up method over the past century. They will demonstrate how to apply cut-up techniques to a variety of artistic mediums, and participants will be encouraged to create, bring in, and share their own works of art (if desired, not required). A wonderful thing about the cut-up method is that it can be applied to whichever medium you enjoy. Words, images, sounds, video, fashion, and performance art may all be cut-up and rearranged to create something new and unexpected.
Anyone can harness the magical and creative potential of the cut-up method. Even if you don’t have any experience with the creative arts or magical practice, the facilitators of this course will walk you through the basics, and show you fundamental ways you can begin a creative and magical practice through work with the cut-up method. There will be plenty of time in class to share and to ask questions.
Dr. Vanessa Sinclair is a psychoanalyst, artist, and occultist based in Sweden, who works with people internationally. She is the host of Rendering Unconscious podcast. Her books include Psychoanalytic Perspectives on the Films of Ingmar Bergman: From Freud to Lacan and Beyond (2023), The Pathways of the Heart (2021), Scansion in Psychoanalysis and Art: The Cut in Creation (2021), Switching Mirrors (2016), and Outsider Inpatient: Reflections on Art as Therapy (2021) with Elisabeth Punzi.
Carl Abrahamsson is a Swedish author, publisher, and filmmaker. His books include Source Magic (2023), Codex Nordica (2022), Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan (2022), Different People (2021), The Devil’s Footprint (2020), Occulture (2018), Mother, Have a Safe Trip (2016), and The Fenris Wolf series. His films include Reseduction (2022), My Silent Lips (2019), Lunacy (2017), Sub Umbra Alarum Luna (2016), and the An Art Apart series. His publishing company is Trapart Books, Films and Editions.
Together they host the Psychoanalysis, Art & the Occult series of events, dedicated to exploring the intersections and integration of psychoanalytic theory, the creative arts, occult practices, and folk magic traditions. By inviting psychoanalysts, philosophers, artists, writers, and occult practitioners from a variety of theoretical orientations and worldviews to discuss their work, personal experiences, and areas of research interest with one another, dialogue is opened up between practitioners in fields of study that traditionally rarely engage with one another though often operate in similar and complementary ways. Join them at Patreon!
Pete Murphy has begun loading some of our latest collaborations up at Spotify and other streaming services. You can download our albums from Pete's Bandcamp free download/name your price. Same goes for all of our albums up at Highbrow Lowlife's Bandcamp page. Enjoy!
As of January, Rendering Unconscious Podcast turned 5 years old! Check out recent episodes:
Be sure to check out the menus to the left! I've created a chronological List of Episodes and Alphabetical List of Guests for easy searching.
As always the best way to keep in touch is at Patreon.
See you soon!
Vanessa
https://www.patreon.com/vanessa23carl
http://www.drvanessasinclair.net
http://www.renderingunconscious.org
https://store.trapart.net
http://highbrow-lowlife.com
https://highbrowlowlife.bandcamp.com
http://psychartcult.org
https://chaosofthethirdmind.com
www.etsy.com/shop/trapartuniqueworks
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