Altar of the Holy generation
In this work, electronic music is presented in the context of a new transcendentalism, a „quasi-religion”. It is based on the relationship between contemporary rave culture and the reactions of the heterogeneous generation that loves it. The rave has taken on a new shroud in the techno and psytrance lovers’ stratum. This audience is clustered around these musical events and enjoys the atmosphere created by the dissonant layers of mechanical sounds. By its very nature, electronic music manipulates the medium of cutting-edge technologies. Drug use is an integral part of electronic dance music parties. Drug use at parties can be understood as a form of consumption that is both encouraged and condemned by contemporary society. Illegality makes the drug even more desirable for the consumer, as it proclaims an ethos of separation from the crowd. In these events, the familiar model of perception is transformed in a drug-technological way. We enter into an aesthetic hallucinatory space that interacts with musical characteristics, repetitive bass sound patterns. Under the influence of the drug, the users shape the context of the surrounding reality according to their inner world. After all, the music itself is produced with the drug’s mechanism of action in mind. Whereas drug use in tribal societies had symbolic meanings, in today’s Western society it is a means to an end. A mystical sensation induced by chemical processes. Stimulant drugs trap the dancer in a „liquid sound material”, creating a slight sense of aesthesia. Under the spell of special effects, the participants sample the sound of the music provided by the producer with irregular, individual movements. The combination of these three building blocks, the DJ, the dance floor, and the altered state of consciousness, illuminated the parallels with religious structures. In the design of the winged altar, I use formal elements of the Christian altar to create a sense of sacredness. Whereas in the Christian religion only the priests and initiates are allowed to approach the altar, in this case the community, brought to life by the rave, is present in the space as equals. In this case, in place of the panels of the winged altar, the doors are decorated with ecstasy tablets painted in the style of a trumpleueil. Thus reinforcing the illusion that the drugs are only an arm’s length away, yet we are left to realise that this is a mirage. While the faithful pray to paintings of saints for their own spiritual salvation, the use of ecstasy pills is a means of achieving mystical spherical entry. The central altarpiece features a projection of a simple square mesh decomposing and reforming, as do our thoughts. The altar of today’s religion is now made of brutal industrial material. The aesthetic unity of metal, neon and smoke fits perfectly into the nights of the urban environment.