Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium by Erik Davis (2023, MIT Press, 248 pp., $32.95 PB)
A couple of years in the past, I made one in every of my uncommon ventures into the artwork world by bidding on and successful a blotter artwork print as a part of a profit for the Multidisciplinary Affiliation for Psychedelic Research. It’s 9″ x 9″ and incorporates 225 perforated squares with a profile view of a bearded man over an undulating palette of colours. It doesn’t include any LSD however is kind of placing.Â
A couple of many years in the past, I made many not-so-rare ventures into the world of blotter acid, eagerly putting one or two of these LSD-impregnated blotter squares on my tongue earlier than blasting off to new dimensions. A lot of these blotter hits had no design on them, merely tinted and even plain white paper, however others featured photos, some humorous, some esoteric: dancing Grateful Useless bears, JR “Bob” Dobbs heads, psychedelic saints, or simply trippy swirls.Â
In Blotter, journalist and counterculture maven Erik Davis explores and illuminates the phenomenon of blotter acid—each as a delirium-loaded medium for hyper-potent psychedelic substances and as a drug-free however drug-induced type of psychedelic artwork. What an extended, unusual journey it has been, and what recollections it stirs up in outdated hippies of a sure age.Â
Davis critiques legendary acid producers, with names like Humphrey Owsley and Nick Sands gaining distinguished point out, as he describes the evolution of LSD dosing from sugar cubes to tablets and blotter paper. However he additionally introduces a cavalcade of lesser-known LSD producers and blotter acid makers as he traces the evolution of LSD and psychedelic tradition from the Nineteen Sixties to the current.Â
He has attention-grabbing observations concerning the commerce in acid, noting that it was usually not (solely) revenue however a form of psychedelic evangelism or militance that impelled the distribution of the consciousness-altering substance. Early adopters believed the acid expertise couldn’t solely change your consciousness; it might change the world. Generally they gave it away without spending a dime; not the habits of your stereotypical dope vendor.
And it was all the time cheap; partially due to that psychedelic evangelism—the article was to not get wealthy however to higher the world—but in addition due to the economics of its manufacturing. LSD is so potent that anybody producing even small batches is producing tons of of hundreds if not hundreds of thousands of doses at a time. And it’s nonetheless a discount producing a complete lot of bang for $5 or $10 to this present day. You may journey for eight hours for lower than it prices to purchase a hamburger.Â
Whereas Blotter is a guide about psychedelic tradition, it’s also a guide about artwork. Blotter acid was and stays unlawful, however blotter artwork performs a task within the up to date artwork scene. The artwork blotter incorporates no LSD however the psychedelic spirit lives inside it—the enjoyment and playfulness, the humor and mysticism and radicality. And it makes fascinating artwork, which Blotter is stuffed with. There should be tons of of photos of blotter artwork; your complete second half of the guide is little greater than photos and their descriptions.
Erikson facilities his guide on San Francisco artist, professor, and occasional federal prison defendant Mark McLoud, curator of one of many largest archives of blotter artwork in existence, the Institute for Unlawful Photos. McCloud performed a key function in transferring blotter artwork from the realm of the prison into the realm of the humanities, and efficiently fended off the feds by convincing a Kansas Metropolis jury that blotter artwork was artwork—not dope (which it wasn’t—even blotter that has been doses turns into inert over time because the LSD is uncovered to mild and air).
He’s additionally an astute commentator on up to date psychedelic tradition, and his ultimate phrases to the neighborhood are price quoting in full. Remarking on LSD’s place as a Western, industrial creation and noting many leaders in activists within the psychedelic house are demanding that Indigenous teams get each a spot on the desk and a share of the income, Davis writes:
“Such reciprocity efforts are removed from beauty. They concretely acknowledge the big debt that every one psychedelic folks owe to these savaged however very important communities whose healers and drugs wizards developed and proceed to keep up visionary plant and fungi traditions for hundreds of years and presumably millennia. However we additionally owe a debt to the hippie freaks, renegade chemists, pranksters, midwives, healers, sellers, guitarists, poets, mystics, burners, artists, and DJs of the deep acid underground. Nonetheless half-baked, harmful, and even batshit their practices, these people—usually low-profile by necessity—nonetheless maintain highly effective drugs for these of us psychedelicizing themselves  inside WEIRD societies: Western, educated, industrial, wealthy, and (kind of) democratic. These people are our “ancestors”—even the Hells Angels and dangerous brujos of the CIA. Acid historical past could appear to be a profane mess, however it’s also a sacred battle, and like all such esoteric agons, it’s a must to strategy it elliptically by patterns and symbols, and tricksy media which may solely ship you additional into forests of whatthefuck. That is the deeper message of the Institute for Unlawful Photos, which isn’t only a assortment of artifacts however a wayward reminiscence palace, an iconostasis of initiation and synchronicity, a comic-book collage of igniting indicators, and the inevitable cracks between them.”
What he mentioned.Â
