Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922)

Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages is a Swedish/Danish silent film that was made in 1922, written and directed by Benjamin Christensen. It is in seven parts, each in different styles. The parts explain different things, such as the behavior of pagan cultures, dramatisations of witch hunts and witchcraft and explanations about witches in the middle ages.

I chose to look at this movie as it is quite dark and I feel that it ties into psych drone.

Psych Drone - Research

I did a simple Google search on psychedelic drone and these are the images that I found. As you can see a lot of the images are quite dark and involve something occult based and these are mixed with an almost dream-like tone. The ones that aren't as dark still have the element of dreaminess and tend to involve nature.

Questions - Psych Drone

As I mentioned on my Advanced Research Strategies blog, I would be asking my subjects some questions to get a better understanding of their preferred genre. Here are the questions and the response I got from my subject for the sub-genre psych drone

1. What imagery do you associate with Psychedelic Drone?
   With psych drone I'd say stuff like white noise, great open washed out deserts.
   
2. What kind of videos/film do you associate with Psychedelic Drone?
   
   In terms of films I would say Monte Hellman's 1967 western The Shooting would qualify. It has a real underlying sense of dread to it and the stark desert provides a repetitive landscape. Stan Brakhage's Dog Star Man would definitely qualify as would Andy Warhol's Manhattan. I'd associate drone with more experimental, installation type film and video. 
   
   
3. What is cliche Psychedelic Drone?
   
   Drone cliches include long tracks and each track can last 10/20 minutes. [sorry I'm not good at this question!!!]
   
4. What does someone who listens to Psychedelic Drone wear?
   
   I don’t think there's a particular 'look' for psych-drone music. Maybe something similar to the grunge movement from the late-80s/early-90s – baggy shirts, Converse, long hair – for the younger listeners.
    
5. What does listening to Psychedelic Drone make you feel like?
   It makes great background music, especially at night. Drone is what it is and describes itself through its name – droning, repeated, low notes. It's not something you listen to on the bus but it can help you relax.
   
   
6. What kinds of bands are your favourite Psychedelic Drone bands?
   
   Vision Fortune, Stars of the Lid, Topaz Rags, Pocahaunted, Robedoor and I'd say there were elements of psych drone in bands like The Velvet Underground, particularly in the song Venus in Furs, and you can incorporate bands like Can, Loop and Spacemen-3 too.

Research - John Whitney

Personally I am not a huge fan of John Whitney's work because it is more computer based as his films are very early computer graphics. I think that these films would be better suited to the psy-trance genre which I have chosen not to explore. However, I felt the need to include some of his films on my blog to show the progression of the psychedelic video.
Below I have included his most well known film, Arabesque, and a few lesser known ones.

Arabesque (1975)

Catalog (1961)

Permutations (1966)

Invocation of My Demon Brother - Kenneth Anger (1969)

Here is a very trippy film by Kenneth Anger. It features scenes which appear that they have been filmed through a kaleidoscope, mirror images and satanic rituals amongst other strange happenings. Around the 4:30 mark is when things all start to get a bit mashed up. Mick Jagger also composed the soundtrack in which he is playing a Moog Synthesiser which is extremely annoying so you may want to mute it.

Research - Oskar Fischinger

Through researching Jordan Belson, I came across another filmmaker called Oskar Fischinger. He created similarly styled films to that of Belson. He invented the 'Lumigraph' (also known as a version of the colour organ) in the 1950s. It produced imagery when objects or body parts were pushed onto its rubberised screen. The Lumigraph needed two people to operate it properly; one person to make colour changes and the other to push things into the rubberised screen.
There are no videos of Oskar using it but I managed to find a film of his wife Elfriede's performance using the Lumigraph after he had passed away.

Elfriede Fischinger - Lumigraph Film (c.1969)

Fischinger is also well known for creating abstract films, which I have also looked into. These are again, mesmerising films that you get drawn into. The scenes, if you will, all blend into one and flow on from one another.

 

Early Abstractions Part 3 (1946-57)

An Optical Poem (1938)

Research - Jordan Belson

At the end of last year I was fortunate enough to get myself down to London and visit the exhibition at Raven Row called Reflections from Damaged Life. It was a truly fascinating exhibition. There were some videos being played there by Jordan Belson.
Jordan Belson was a filmmaker and artist and he created abstract films in which he created visual illusions with the aid of projectors. The films are hypnotising to say at the least and you get sucked into the movements of the films.
Belson requested that his films were not to be published online as the quality would be significantly reduced so it is now hard to find his work online.
I did however manage to find some film stills and excerpts from two films of his.

Jordan Belson - Music of the Spheres

Jordan Belson - Bardo

I think that these films would be brilliant to project for the genre of space rock. Unfortunately I don't think that this will be possible as I am only able to find a few decent stills and very short videos which I may get into trouble for using.

Research - Psychedelic Imagery

Below I have included some psychedelic imagery from a Google search. Most of this is computer generated art and this is what I am staying away from with my projections as I don't like it and I also feel that it is very gimmicky.

Research - Psychedelic Fashion

Personally, I don't think it really matters if you dress psychedelically or not, but I am choosing to hone in on some of the fashions that accompanies the genre. For the women it tends to be a mixture of Victorian, African, Indian, boho, tie-dye, native American, witchy looking-esque clothing with a pair of huge bell sleeves thrown in.

For the men however, the stereotypical look would tend to be that of an ethnically patterned smart shirt, a nice pair of trousers/jeans and a pair of suede boots.

Below I have found some photographs of people from the past 60 years whose style has been inspired by psychedelia and the hippie counterculture.

Research - Psychedelic Photography

I thought that researching psychedelic photography as a whole may be a good place to start. I have chosen photographs that I liked and what stood out to me.

Cher - Richard Avedon

 Model with mirror

 Karl Ferris

 The Paperhead album cover

 Glitched photograph

 The Night Beats

 Jacco Gardner

 Jacco Gardner

 Jacco Gardner

 The Night Beats

The Night Beats

 Os Mutantes

 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Karl Ferris

 Temples

 Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn

 The Strange Boys - Be Brave

 Temples - Sun Structures