Psychedelic Aesthetics: Tangling Phantoms

Summary

The video essay 'Tangling Phantoms' explores the fluidity of cultural identity through psychedelic aesthetics, using symbols like Beijing opera masks and mahjong tiles to represent transnational experiences. It employs film techniques such as superimposition and rapid editing to challenge stereotypical narratives of Chineseness, advocating for anti-essentialist cultural narratives. This practice highlights the role of sensory aesthetics in shaping cultural memory and suggests new avenues for research in experimental filmmaking and cultural studies.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This video essay is an auto-ethnographic practice within psychedelic aesthetics in a 3 min film – Tangling Phantoms (2022), which explores the ‘semiotic fluidity’ of cultural identity under transnational contexts. This practice aims to express anti-essentialist cultural narratives, in which, as a Chinese student studying in the UK, the cultural symbols – Beijing opera mask and mahjong tiles – as ‘semiotic sensation’, signify author’s transnational/cultural experiences. Also, this research will discuss semiotic approach and fluid semiotics that engage with cultural symbols to create non-linear and fragmented narratives, in which the application of film techniques such as superimposition, rapid editing, and over-texturing provides an ambiguous interpretation of cultural symbols that challenges stereotypical narratives of Chineseness. This article asserts that sensory aesthetics serve as a tool of sensational cultural memory, which suggests new pathways for future research in experimental filmmaking and cultural studies. The approach of this practice highlights the importance of personal experiences that create hybrid and fluid trans-cultural identity. The findings from this practice, therefore, contribute to how art can redefine perceptions of cultural identity.

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