This exhibition arrived from the uncertain discussion regarding the possibilities of how altered states of consciousness could be used in the contemporary approach towards our lives. Its aims are however not as utopical, but rather interested in the contributions of different cultures, more precisely contra-cultures, affecting the social consciousness in three strong waves of the 60s (hippie), 70s (punk) and 90s (rave). This is not based on any historical perspective such as the project "The Whole Earth. California and the Disappearance of the Outside” prepared by editors Diedrich Diederichsen and Anselm Franke, although the discourse and this book itself was one of our sources. This book gathered in one place all the discussions turning around the catalogues of Steward Brand and its analysis and critique of the holistic approaches on our existence on the blue planet. First of all Brand disrupted the belief in the possibility of a free existence in the frame of California alternative culture community of the 60s, which ideology, and especially its alternativeness, being absorbed by the establishment, had clearly negative results in the frame of neoliberalism and digital capitalism.

Curated by Edith Jeřábková

Courtesy of Futura Centre for Contemporary Art

http://www.futuraproject.cz/en/futura/exhibitions/2014/comet