Jeremy Shaw's DMT
Jennifer Fisher
Performance Research August 18, 2017 DOI: 10.1080/13528165.2017.1412648 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Addiction Psilocybin DMT |
| Keywords | Context archaeology Agency philosophy Psychoanalysis Psychotherapist Trance Euphoriant White mutation Aesthetics Meaning existential Hallucinogen Art history Anthropology |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that Jeremy Shaw curates the psychedelic session as a performance of the drug's agency and aesthetic power, contrasting with clinical settings. |
Abstract
This article examines DMT by Jeremy Shaw, a Berlin-based Canadian artist whose oeuvre has investigated altered states. For this 2004 video work, Shaw administered the hallucinogen dimethyltryptamine to a group of friends and videotaped their experiences. I am interested in how Shaw curates the psychedelic session as a performance of the drug’s agency and aesthetic power. A powerful entheogen similar to psilocybin and ayahuaska, DMT induces intense feelings of euphoria and hallucinations that have been used for divinatory and healing purposes. Beyond its recreational uses, DMT has been found to be effective in the therapeutic treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, substance addiction and in palliative care. Since their pioneering experiments of the 1960s, Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert and Ralph Metzner’s determinant of ‘setting’ -- the context of the psychedelic session -- has remained a critical factor. In current psychopharmacological research, the aesthetics of setting are now understood to be crucial in shaping the psychedelic experience. The affective contexts of Shaw’s psychedelic sessions provide a striking contrast to the institutional approximations of domestic interiors used in clinical trials. Shaw curates the psychedelic experience in several registers. First, Shaw’s role as session guide or care-taker for participants undergoing extraordinary states sustains the etymological meaning of ‘curating’ which originally described a catalytic encounter of one tasked with the care of souls (usually a priest). Second, Shaw configures the atmosphere of the setting with the neutral atmosphere of a ‘white cube’ gallery. Framed against a white background, close headshots of the person undergoing the psychedelic enable intimate examination of their euphoric facial expressions and intoxicated comportment. While the conceptual formality and white performance field are almost clinical, subtitles flashing at the bottom of the screen, drawn from trip reports by the artist, reveal his collaborators’ struggles to verbalize their hallucinations.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on psilocybin for addiction, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychedelics as Medicines: An Emerging New Paradigm General population | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Finding the divine within: exploring the role of the sacred in psychedelic integration therapy for sexual trauma and dysfunction | 2021 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| E8‑Based Neurochemical Simulation Accelerates Psilocybin Therapy for Cocaine Addiction — E8 Intelligence Research | 2026 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| High hopes? Precision psychedelic addiction medicine | 2025 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Psilocybin: Next to treat depression, OCD and nicotine addiction | 2021 | Historical analysis |