Psytrance Influences on Touchless Interactive Experiences

In the fields of new media, art, and technology, we live and evolve together with multimedia interactivedigital technology. This symbiosis has made it possible to develop novel works that dialogue with theexploratory nature of the human being when confronted with unfamiliar technological equipment. The electronic music scenario brought us some elements that inspired and provoked us in this quest. The Psytrance style in particular made us realize that once a minimal simple harmony was supported by a solid rhythm, the audience could interact and control many of the sound clusters available, solely with their body movement. In this chapter we report experimental results and analysis, which point towards an approach for composing electronic music through the distinct and innovative behaviour of the participants, turning them into real performers, as well as transforming the role of the DJ/VJ by engaging them in a two-way dialogue with their audience.

Biogenetic Structural Perspectives on Shamanism and Raves

The worldwide development of raves and similar collective rituals characterized by all night communal rituals involving dance, drumming, music, and often the use of psychedelic substances can be understood as a modern manifestation of the same biological principles underlying shamanism. The shamanic ritual was a nighttime ceremony which engaged all of the community in a powerful interaction with the spirit world as the shaman beat drums or rattled while singing, chanting and dancing. The common underlying biogenetic structures of shamanism and raves involve: the social functions of ritual; the effects of dance and music as systems for social bonding and emotional communication; and the effects on consciousness that produce alterations of emotions, identity and consciousness and personal healing.

Arcadian Electrickery

Psychedelic Trance (psytrance) is a sub-genre within electronic dance music (EDM) that is notable for its longevity considering EDM mutates and evolves so rapidly. It has flourishing scenes worldwide and for many participants it constitutes a lifestyle and an integral part of their identity. Psytrance has been discussed in terms of its global and local expressions; this chapter seeks to explore how England as a local node reinterprets the culture of a global scene. Some key characteristics of English psytrance are discussed via types of national identity outlined by scholars like Martin Cloonan and a further attribute specific to English psytrance, a humorous psychedelic sensibility, is argued for.

The Roots of Trance

This chapter explores the roots of trance by taking a reflective and historical view of the influences of 1970s and 1980s music on the development of trance. The author reflects on concerts which he personally attended, analysing them for music, lyrics, style, performance, and concepts which formed the roots of trance. This includes performances from the following genres: space rock, psychedelia, Krautrock, and post punk. The chapter discusses performances by the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Arthur Brown, The Edgar Broughton Band, Kraftwerk, Joy Division, and Public Image Limited. In each case those elements which have contributed to the development of trance are highlighted.

The Paradox of Self in the Imagination of Goa Trance

This chapter deals with the first part of the investigation in regards to the experience of self in the Goa Trance dance-floor. The author analyzes the paradox of self in a phenomenological scope without going to deep into philosophic concepts but deep enough to give a sufficient basis to understand the arguments of the next chapter with same title and different subtitle. After dealing with the self, a notion of what is that we call real is then put forward within a framework from the Portuguese poet Teixeira de Pascoaes. This will also be in the context of an analyses of the Pythagorean tetractys in order to understand what can be said that is or is not existence in a conceptual stand point. This will set forward the necessary basis for understanding what is happening with the pure trancer in the Goa Trance dance-floor.

Transformational Festivals

With the growing popularity of psychedelic trance worldwide, as well as a general resurgence of electronic music in the United States, several new forms of music festivals are one the rise in North America- among these are transformational festivals. Transformational festivals in North America are a progeny of psychedelic trance, Burning Man, and full-moon rave culture. Transformational festivals incorporate spiritual practices such as yoga, chanting, meditation and ecstatic dance alongside their primary exhibits of musical and psychedelic entertainment. The festivals advertise a predominating intention of providing attendees with multiple avenues of self-development, therapeutic healing, and spiritual transformation. The purpose of this chapter is to access elements of belonging, identity, religiosity, and elitism among transformational culture and their transformational festival events. This chapter will offer comparison to religious revivals, cults, new religious movements, millenarianism, and cultural revitalization movements.

Exploring Psytrance as Technognosis

This chapter explores the performative process occurring in the dance-floor/stage of a psytrance event as ‘technognosis', a concept that combines media, arts, performance and technology with the notion of gnosis. Technognosis is proposed as an overarching concept, able to theorize the whole transpersonal range of the psytrance experience, including its spiritual dimension, enabled by the induction and facilitation of alterations in consciousness. The psytrance experience is analyzed it terms of aesthetic, visionary and mystical experiences understood here as qualities of gnosis. At the same time, this chapter contends that technognosis affects participation and invites its multi-media and performative expression, triggering fundamental changes in ways of human thinking, imagining and operating; potentiating the adoption of participation as the next paradigm in human existence. In parallel, the chapter proposes a post-modern approach in researching and analyzing the psytrance phenomenon as a whole, combining media and performance studies with religious studies methodological tools.

Psychedelic Trance and Multimedia Neo-Rituals

This chapter examines the relevance of multimedia technologies in Psychedelic Trance gatherings, exploring its technical, sensory and spiritual convergence. Technology devices have always been a part of our lives, from the first artefacts of early humanity to the most sophisticated of our era, where technology has taken control of some aspects of our lives. In the late twentieth century, a new stage of history characterized by the transformation of our material culture through mechanisms of a new technological paradigm started. We live in communion with all kinds of technologies that complement and extend us in most of our existential aspects, not only in a technical way but also a personal, emotional and even spiritual level. The electronic dance music and its relevance in modern cultures can be a reflexion of this reality, where new technologies and multimedia tools have awakened neo-ritual practices in Psychedelic Trance gatherings, evoking tribal experiences with shamanic foundations, and mediated by high-tech guide elements.

Pushing the Boundaries

Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Melbourne psytrance scene, this chapter addresses the musical and social aesthetics of the dark psytrance (darkpsy) electronic dance music subgenre and its furious dance floors. The interviewees of my research often regard psytrance tracks as the musical transpositions of psychedelic drug – particularly LSD – experiences. Dark psytrance can be considered the hard core of psytrance, sending its LSD-infused musical structures into overdrive. Regarded as the flagship in the evolution of psytrance by fans and considered to be uncomfortably or even menacingly intensive by others, darkpsy follows the basic imperative of becoming increasingly faster and adopting more abstract forms of expression, destabilising rigid boundaries and catapulting the listener into a zone of the unknown. Such dissolution of meaning is celebrated on dance floors of high intensity, where psychedelic music and drug become integral parts of a media ecology that is aimed at the presentation of the unpresentable.

Requirements of a Digital Platform for Psytrance Parties

Digital platforms that support virtual worlds are becoming more complex and there is a growing fusion between real life and digital objects. Wireless technologies, screens' resolution and colours, 3D technologies, virtual and augmented reality can change the way a user experiences a virtual environment. This chapter explores input and output technologies for computing devices and discusses the technological developments that constitute requirements for the success of non-physical trance parties or, as some would prefer to call them, virtual trance parties.