Last weekend, I went to the Contemporary Art Gallery and explored Haroon Mirza’s exhibit titled ‘Entheogens’. Notably, the term entheogen refers to a chemical substance used in a ritualistic context, which often results in some psychological or physiological change upon consumption. The exhibit consists of 15 works, providing an artistic commentary on shamanic ritual practices in Brazil.

Mirza’s work is spread across two rooms, as ‘äää’, an immersive audio-visual installation, occupies an entire room. Upon entering the room containing ‘äää’, a circular carpet invites the viewer to sit in a relaxed position, facing four TV monitors and surrounded by an array of speakers. In the other room, a variety of works are presented, including modified PCB boards, LED sculptures, and an audio-visual sculpture. Various techniques including acid etching, electroetching, printing, and evaporation are used to create evocative textures on copper PCB boards. In each case, a different type of entheogen serves as a source of inspiration and is in some way imposed upon the copper surface. These entheogenic plants include cacti (Peruvian Torch, San Pedro, Lophophora Williamsii), flowers (Ipomoea Tricolour), and mushrooms (Psilocybe Cubensis, Psilocybe Semilanceata). Three minimalist LED sculptures incorporate solar panels, providing a degree of interactivity, as motion throughout the space can alter the LED output. These works seemed to reference the vast cosmos, which is often a critical component in shamanic practices. The focal point of this room is a sculpture titled ‘Lamp for Williamsii’, which consists of repurposed furniture, a speaker, lights and a glass case containing three Lophophora Williamsii. The sound played through the speakers is correlated with pulses of light, an intricate pattern which was specially devised to provide the cacti with an optimal combination of red and blue light.

Throughout the exhibit, Mirza makes references to themes which are central to shamanic thought. According to Langdon, Amazonian shamanism expresses three cultural themes, “the principle of transformation, concern with the flow of vital energy, and the influence of occult forces on everyday life” [3].

Mirza explores the act of transformation in ‘äää’. The piece begins with an intimate audio-visual portrait of a shirtless man lying on his back, vocalizing while he strikes his body in various ways to create a percussive texture. Gradually, Mirza incorporates additional content, often manipulating the original audio-visual material, altering playback speeds, looping, and imposing digital noise. Although these alterations are initially perceived as abrupt interruptions, they gradually coalesce into a throbbing rhythmic groove, which envelopes the listener. As a result, this works contains both short and long-term transformation, as immediately apparent digital manipulations gradually transform an unmediated ritualistic portrait into a dense wall of media content.

The flow of energy is a theme which Mirza explores throughout his work. He makes a considerable effort to incorporate electronic circuitry into each work, an explicit metaphorical embodiment of the transfer of energy. Moreover, several works rely on solar power, another metaphor for the flow of energy from one entity to another. Furthermore, the electroetching process involves passing energy through the metal being etched in order to permanently transform its appearance. Interestingly, the speakers used in ‘äää’ are arranged in a circle, with light strips directed inwards, implying a transfer of energy inwards, towards the viewer.

This exhibition is primarily constructed from patterns, referencing the patterns which characterize ritualistic patterns. Rituals themselves are often pattern based, and are patterned throughout time, as they are continually replicated over a period of many years. These patterns range from elaborate patterns printed on circuit boards to dense fractal-like images. The video material which Mirza sourced for the installation includes a scientific discussion of patterns, referencing complex physics concepts which indicate the patterned nature of the universe. In addition, Mirza imposes patterns onto a video creating a patterned distortion of the original video. The audio component of the installation was highly patterned, with dance-heavy beats and sequenced sounds extracted from the video to create a dense sonic soundscape.

Several video clips featured in ‘äää’ allude to the notion that the universe is built from patterns. Interestingly, humans are predisposed to impose patterns on sources which are not inherently patterned. For example, listeners have a natural tendency to project metric patterns onto sequences of sound, despite the absence of acoustic cues for metrical organization [1]. However, as has been discussed at great length in class, the rigidity of patterns is often ill-suited to accommodate the variability of data in the real world. Unfortunately, when an information source is quantized and forced to conform to rigid patterns, it loses critical attributes which make it unique. Mirza explores this notion in ‘äää’. The installation begins with rhythms produced by a human, featuring noticeable deviations from a consistent tempo. As a synthesized rhythm, characterized by its robotic precision, is layered on top of the human produced rhythms, there is a palpable tension between the two rhythms. Over the course of the audio-visual spectacle, the synthesized rhythms grow to overpower the human produced rhythms. In addition, video clips are cut and aligned so that they conform to the synthesized rhythm as the installation progresses. The powerful juxtaposition of the wavering rhythms produced by a human and the synthesized rhythms naturally leads one to consider the conformity which is imposed on society by the algorithms that permeate our society.

Clearly, allusions to the title are found throughout the exhibit, as Mirza selected materials and processes which embody various aspects of the ritualistic use of entheogens. In some senses, ‘äää’ was an entheogen itself, as the installation gradually induces an altered state, culminating in a psychedelic fractal-like explosion of animal-inspired patterns. According to Glass-Coffin, “the entheogen itself serves both as messenger and as mediator between the worlds to which the shaman sends his or her soul during the all-night mesa” [2]. Given the significant role of the entheogen in the process of communication, Mirza made the intuitive decision to emphasize copper PCB boards, the building blocks of electronic circuitry. Not only do circuit boards allow for the communication between electronic components, they form the basis for many communication methods that humans use on a daily basis. In a different sense, modern technology is an entheogen to our society, as it mediates communication across the world. Furthermore, an entheogen is intended to alter one’s perspective on the world. Undoubtedly, technology has played a similar role, altering the manner in which we interact and perceive the world we inhabit.

Through carefully chosen materials and meticulous presentation, Mirza was able to create a thoughtful collection of works which open a dialogue on the mediating role of technology.

[1]  Paul Fraisse. “Rhythm and Tempo”. In: The Psychology of Music. Ed. byDiana Deutsch. New York: Academic Press, 1982, pp. 149–181.

[2]  Bonnie Glass-Coffin. “Shamanism and San Pedro through Time: Some notes on the archaeology, history, and continued use of an entheogen in northern Peru”. In: Anthropology of Consciousness 21.1 (2010), pp. 58–82.issn: 10534202. doi: 10.1111/j.1556-3537.2010.01021.x.

[3]  Esther Jean Langdon. “New Perspectives of Shamanism in Brazil: Shaman-isms and Neo-Shamanisms as Dialogical Categories”. In: Civilisations 61.2 (2013), pp. 19–35.