Amazonian Visions: Animating Ghosts

Amazonian Visions is a practice-based research project that finds associations between the concepts of expanded cinema and animation, and the myriad worlds of the Amazonian psychedelic brew, ayahuasca. I argue that expanded animation is a medium not unlike cultural practices of expanded vision and psychedelic experiences inspired by ayahuasca. By juxtaposing these two concepts, tracing their genealogies, and examining unexpected links between the two, I propose that both are techniques that allow the fantastical to enter the ordinary. This theoretical framework informs my expanded animation work, in particular the shows Tranquilandia and Tres Esquinas, where the histories of the Colombian Amazon are transformed through ayahuasca visions into digital animations and immersive installations