The evening of October the 19th saw the second event of AAU’s series on the Summer of Love, a dual lecture and art exhibition between AAU’s Professor Dr. Douglas Dix and Professor Robert Horvitz.
Enticed by the promise of discussion on psychedelic drug culture, the elegant room 2.07 filled up with slightly more guests than the Homage To Flower Power exhibit saw earlier this semester. School of Humanities and Social Sciences Distinguished Senior Lecturer, Dr. Douglas Dix took the audience on a magical, mystical tour of the extensive history behind the use of psychedelic substances from the controlled experiments of the 1950s to the drug-filled counterculture movements of the 1960s.
His lecture entitled: “The Culture & Thought of the Psychedelic Movement: Psychonauts, Pranksters & Transpersonal Psychology” was jam-packed full of contributors to the growth of psychedelia (so called “psychonauts”) from psychologists, ethnobotanists, and even their patients in the establishment to the youth of the day, musicians, writers, and Beat poets like Allen Ginsberg, it seemed like everyone was taking LSD and other hallucinogenic substances in the 60s. Additionally, Dr. Dix discussed literature and various films that were laced with the cultural fervor that came out of the increased recreational use of the substances before and after possession declared illegal in 1968 in United States. In part the talk acted as a little taste of a class Dr. Dix will be teaching about 1968 (the details of which will remain mysterious for now) a year from now in the Autumn semester of 2018.
The evening finished with some cheerful wine-filled mingling around Professor Robert Horvitz’s art exhibit, New Works (“New Drawings”), next door and of course a fine assortment Professor Christopher Montoni’s signature orange, blue, and pink cheeses to delight every art-loving soul. The geometric (but not entirely psychedelic-inspired according to Horvitz) pen drawings lined the room and were just the right pairing for the previous lecture. Each individual work of art, drawing passer-bys into its hypnotic lines and patterns. Clearly the evening was a success among the diverse group of attendees and hopefully AAU’s |art| SPACE will see more events like this to come!
Photo courtesy of Rita Puhto
