LONDON.- Blessed Foundation announced the UK premiere of a new video work by Andrea Khôra. Enitled RAPTURE, 2024, it will be shown at the foundation’s London headquarters from 16 May 2024, running until 27 June 2024.

Described as an AI-infused fiction capturing the darker side of the current psychedelics start-up culture, RAPTURE takes the form of an interview between Ethan Grant, the CEO of a fictional psychedelic start-up, TrandscendX, and Kate Thompson, the host of ‘Mystical Misadventure’ podcast. As the interview unravels, Ethan paints a picture of a business whose ultimate goal is the advancement of human spirituality and wellbeing, akin to some of the common narratives behind psychedelic infrastructures currently developed in Silicon Valley. The belief in one product’s power to advance humanity as a whole, is reminiscent of the other field of investment, that of AI. One of Ethan’s one-liners “TrandscendX is more than just a company, it’s a life mission” reverberates a recent case of Elon Musk suing Open AI. Musk accused the start-up he co-funded of prioritising profit over its original mission of developing AI for the benefit of humanity.1

AI and a psychedelic experience are two key components of the visual language of the work. Although Khôra's inputs and AI’s outputs merge seamlessly, there is an impressive amount of labour and research from the artist poured into this piece. One of the AI inputs introduced by Khôra is her original footage from the Psychedelic Science, 2023, a conference organised by Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). MAPS was founded in 1986 as a non-profit research and educational organisation and is currently the leader in bringing psychedelics to market, with more than $130 million raised since its founding. 2 The scenes recorded by Khôra give an insight into a mix of technology, rave, panel discussions and enthusiastic speeches that shaped the event and that are reflected in Ethan’s programming for TrandscendX.

Khôra introduces the touchstones of the current psychedelic healing landscape and asks crucial ethical questions about the power relations within it. Through the character of Kate, she interrogates the use of Indigenous knowledge for profit and the wellbeing of patients in inherently hierarchical church-like congregations conceptualised by Ethan.

Besides the video, the exhibition at Blessed will present the research and process behind the piece bringing more attention to the complex work dynamic between an artist and AI. The exhibition will also be accompanied by a public programme looking deeper into the institutionalised psychedelic experiences, and the intersection of AI and psychedelics.

Andrea Khôra is an artist and researcher based in London. Her practice seeks to comprehend the malleability of reality on personal and societal scales. As a PhD researcher in the Art Department at Goldsmiths, her practice-led project examines expanded consciousness and maps its intersection with hegemonic institutions, in particular, what is birthed from their tensions. Sites of interest include CIA parascience experiments in the Cold War, early internet utopian histories, and psychedelic countercultures of the 1970s, as well as the artist’s own experience within medical psychedelic therapy.


1 Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAi, is also a chair of Journey Colab, a start-up looking into use of psychedelics in addiction care, and one of the likely inspirations of a fictional character of Ethan. J. Nidumolu, A. Soni and S. Dang, Elon Musk sues OpenAI for abandoning original mission for profit, March 1, 2024). Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/elon-musk-sues-openai-ceo-sam-altman-breach-contract-2024-03-01/)

2 D. Gilbert, The Washington Post, April 22, 2023. Source:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/04/22/sam-altman-psychedelics-mental-health/