Cooking the Cosmic Soup: Vincent Moon's Altered States of Live Cinema
Amir Vudka
Deleuze and Guattari Studies October 27, 2023 DOI: 10.3366/dlgs.2023.0535 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Movie theater Transcendental number Filmmaking Immanence Magic telescope Style visual arts Perception Aesthetics Art history Astronomy Theology Epistemology |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that Vincent Moon's films and live cinema are 'psychedelic' in opening perception to invisible realms, drawing on transcendental style and time-image, and inducing altered states through ritualistic performances. |
Abstract
The films and live cinema of Vincent Moon are considered in this chapter as ‘psychedelic’: a form of filmmaking and film performances that can open the doors of perception to invisible realms of percepts, affects and durations that are beyond or below ordinary human perception. According to Paul Schrader, films can evoke such spiritual dimensions, in particular through what he called the transcendental style of film, and what Gilles Deleuze termed the time-image. As an audio-visual ethnographer of world religions who is distinctly influenced by shamanic and animistic traditions, Moon brings the transcendental style back to its plane of immanence. His live cinema performances have a ritualistic and ecstatic aspect that recalls the esoteric history of haunted media. Moon's enthralling film performances induce altered states of mind, tap into spiritual realities and immerse the audience in magic.
Citations in the library
Cites 3
- Ayahuasca Religions in Acre: Cultural Heritage in the Brazilian Borderlands Anthropology of Consciousness March 1, 2012
- The Ganzfeld experience—A stably inducible altered state of consciousness: Effects of different auditory homogenizations PsyCh Journal January 4, 2019
- Deleuze, Altered States and Film July 4, 2007