Abstract
This paper analyzes the role of cultural interchanges on psychedelic graphic design from the late 1960s, comparing it to that of appropriation of imagery occurred in the same context. The boundaries between multicultural flows and the appropriation of graphic elements in psychedelic graphic design are sometimes faded. Nonetheless, both terms reflect an action that carries visual and methodological consequences. In the countercultural phenomenon and in the psychedelic landscape in particular, the Indian ethos appears to be a point of intersection between these two practices. For this, the paper analyzes samples of psychedelic graphic design from 1966-69 – in which Indian imagery is predominant – to assess the role of multiculturalism and appropriation in the design process. The West looked at India as a path to transcendence, or a spiritual inducement to achieve higher states of mind. As a consequence, Indian elements, from religious figures to hallucinatory patterns, were soon introduced to counterculture. Although the first influences appear to have come from music and meditation practices, graphic design, as a ubiquitous visual manifestation, rapidly absorbed, returned, and transformed those inputs. The result came throughout psychedelic record covers, press, and posters either in the United States and the United Kingdom. Posters such as Tantric Lovers (1967), from the Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, or Victor Moscoso’s Quicksilver Messenger Service, John Lee Hooker, and The Miller Blues Band (1967) manifest the dynamics and tension between multiculturalism and appropriation that would change the praxis of countercultural graphic design.
Presenters
Juliana F. DuqueResearcher, Graphic Design, CIEBA - Centro de Investigação e de Estudos em Belas-Artes , Portugal
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Graphic design,Counterculture,1960s,Cultural Processes,Multiculturalism,Psychedelia
