RAPTURE

RAPTURE is an experimental short film exploring the collision of Psychedelics and Capitalism using live footage and ai animation. Link to film and additional information to come. It is currently on view at Kunthall Charlottenborg, Copenhagen as part of the Poetics of Encryption exhibition.

A critical response to RAPTURE by Julia Greenway

Andrea Khôra’s practice explores consciousness through the transformative potential of psychedelics. Drawing on her religious upbringing and regular ketamine therapy, Khôra delves into the convergence of transcendental experiences and corporate influence through her encounters at psychedelic conferences. By employing AI image generation across her film and performance work, Khôra captures the hallucinogenic landscape and its unlikely intersection with corporate agendas.

In her latest film, RAPTURE, Khôra portrays the confluence of tech startups and psychedelic realms through the fictional podcast Mystical Misadventures. Drawing on contemporary tropes from new age discourse, the film crafts a hallucinatory dialogue between host Kate Thompson and Ethan Grant, the ambitious mind behind TranscendX, a psychedelic startup.

The character of Ethan Grant embodies the archetype of charismatic, enthusiastic CEOs often found in contemporary holistic spaces who fervently believe in the transformative potential of psychedelics to save the world. His behaviour oscillates between that of a shamanic spiritual leader and a venture capitalist, epitomising Dr Katherine MacLean’s concept of ‘corporadeli’: the manifestation of ‘corporate structures, ethos, or logic within the context of the psychedelic landscape’. 1.

Contemporary business models are adapting to the renaissance of the psychedelic market. As substances are decriminalised for personal and ceremonial use in the USA and Europe, cultural acceptance is driving an expansion of practices, moving the focus from the pharmaceutical industry to spiritual and multidimensional healing. Intriguingly, the discourse, language and excitement surrounding hallucinogens mirrors that surrounding advanced technologies and AI. Silicon Valley and startup tech culture enthusiastically promote and celebrate the merging of hallucinogens and AI as holistic media that can influence our technological future.

A metaphor for the current social and technological movement, RAPTURE explores these cutting-edge fields through AI-generated visual language and incisive character studies. The film seamlessly transitions between the present reality and psychedelic AI-generated interventions. Grant sets the tone with an ‘opening exercise’ during the podcast, enveloping his surroundings in a blue light and transforming his likeness into distorted, other-worldly forms. This initiates a series of unsolicited AI mediations throughout the film, from Thompson’s hands morphing into unidentifiable fleshy sacks to immersive hallucinogenic experiences in mushroom fields, treatment centres and healing spaces. RAPTURE disrupts the physicality of the podcast through machine-learning technologies, transporting viewers into a hypnagogic dreamlike realm.

Whether these hallucinations are those of the podcast host, the startup guru or the viewer, they use surrealism to explore the future of technological innovation. By using the clichéd visual language of transcendentalism as her reference, AI as her medium, and the future of corporate models as her mode of contemplation, Khôra’s RAPTURE offers a timely depiction of our own reality amid the increasing uncertainty of automation and corporate power.

1. Normand, Brian (2022), ‘Cor-Por-Ra-Del-IC (adj.): Manifesting Corporate Structures, Ethos, or Logic within the Context of the Psychedelic Landscape’. Psymposia, 8 April. www.psymposia.com/corporadelic/.

RAPTURE was co-commisioned by KW Institute of Art, Blessed Foundation, and Kunsthal Charlottenborg.