High Art: Drug Culture and American Visual Art

Carolina Miranda of WNYC interviews art critic Ken Johnson (who visits Monday 11/7) about his new book, Are You Experienced?: How Psychedelic Consciousness Transformed Modern Art.

CM: How did American culture change as a result of psychedelic culture?

KJ: I think it drew attention to consciousness. Prior to that time, people would think that consciousness was this basic normal, perceptual, cognitive, average kind of thing. If it changed, it was because there was something wrong with you. In the ‘60s, because of drugs and because of the kind of thinking that came out of psychedelic culture, people started to think that consciousness was a much more changeable kind of thing. We tend to make judgments about art now in terms of how it affects our consciousness: how does it change how we think or feel?

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