Abstract

Full Paper. Session: Humans and NonHumans / Mental, Hallucinatory and Predictions

Keywords: Virtual Reality, Psychedelic, Art, Entheogens, Psychotherapy

Throughout this text we will analyze some human concerns that are the subject of analysis in different fields of knowledge such as philosophy, art, science and technology. These concerns revolve around what is reality? what is fiction? what are the effects of hallucination? and what is virtuality? through different cultural products such as art, literature, cinema, psychoactive or entheogenic experiences, up to the most recent proposals of Virtual Reality and their forms of interaction. We will try to envision and propose new ways of perceiving reality, seeking a balance between the real and the virtual world. We will take a tour from the way we process reality and create fictions around it, to the illusionism that has constituted an important part of our search for consciousness, mediating between rationality and experimentation in the construction of new realities to finally make a proposal on Virtual Reality based on the therapeutic use of hallucinogens.

• Sandra Cuevas, Master in Visual Studies and Bachelor in Graphic Design, both titles from UAEMéx (Mexico). She has various diplomas in animation, screenwriting, art direction and computer and electronic programming. Professionally, she has collaborated in animation studios as Nikel Studios, Onirik Studio, Inzomnia Animación, Delotroladodelcero Films, working on projects that have been awarded the Ariel award by the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences and the Silver Goddess, among others. In teaching, she has been a professor in the degrees of Engineering in Technology and Digital Animation of the UVM, in Digital Art of the Faculty of Arts of the UAEMéx, in Design, Art and Interactive Technologies in the University Center of Art, Architecture and Design of the University of Guadalajara. She has been interested in issues related to imaginary production, creative processes, complex thinking, the use of new technologies, among other topics. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandra-cuevastorres.
• Reynaldo Thompson studied architecture at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico, and postgraduate studies at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain, and the University of Texas at Dallas, USA, the latter being where he obtained a doctorate in aesthetics studies focused on Contemporary Art. He has participated in collective and solo exhibitions and curated shows in Mexico and abroad. He served as Head of the Department of Art and Business at the University of Guanajuato and is currently focused on research on art, science and technology in Latin America. His research results have been published in domestic and foreign journals. He is a member of the National System of Researchers of the National Council for Science and Technology in Mexico and a member of the Ibero-American Observatory of Digital and Electronic Arts.
• Tirtha Mukhopadhyay, PhD is Professor of Art and Aesthetics at Universidad de Guanajuato, Mexico. He is multi-disciplinary scholar who taught at Presidency University of India (1996-2000), University of Calcutta (2000 -2016) and at University of Texas at Dallas from 2002 to 2005, before migrating to Mexico. He was Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA from 2013-2014. His publications include books like ‘Affective States in Art’ (Proquest-UMI) ‘Cezanne to Picasso’ (Calcutta University Press, India) and more than 50 articles on creativity, cognition and aesthetics, digital art, visual anthropology and literature, that were published from reputed publishers like OUP, IOS Press, MIT and Atelier-Etno. Mukhopadhyay is also a poet in the Bengali language. He is the Chief Editor of an indexed interdisciplinary journal called ‘Rupkatha’ since 2009.