Trans- States: The art of crossing over

Trans- States was an experimental, transdisciplinary conference held in the UK, in September 2016, that sought to bring about a valuable convocation of esoterically-inclined minds: a meeting of academics, independent scholars, magical practitioners and artists with shared interests in both the study and production of contemporary occulture.

A shameless pun, a ‘trans- state’ (playing on ‘trance state’) is, among other things, a coincidentia oppositorum: an alchemical wedding that defines the fixed place, where boundaries are actively transgressed – where the role of the magician, mystic and artist collide.

This volume features a collection of essays inspired by, and in some cases developed from, the Trans- States conference. Our contributors offer different perspectives on work produced by artists undergoing – or seeking – alterations in consciousness; on art created for the very purpose of bringing about transformations in the artist, the wider culture, and even: reality itself.