Psychedelic Aesthetics: Tangling Phantoms
Communications in Humanities Research June 13, 2025 Wei Gan
A video essay uses auto-ethnographic methods within psychedelic aesthetics to explore cultural identity under transnational contexts. The film, Tangling Phantoms (2022), employs cultural symbols such as Beijing opera masks and mahjong tiles as 'semiotic sensations' to express anti-essentialist narratives. As a Chinese student in the UK, the author uses film techniques like superimposition, rapid editing, and over-texturing to create non-linear, fragmented narratives that challenge stereotypical notions of Chineseness. Sensory aesthetics are presented as a tool for sensational cultural memory, suggesting new pathways for experimental filmmaking and cultural studies. The practice highlights how personal experiences can create hybrid, fluid trans-cultural identities and redefine perceptions of cultural identity.