The Wellcome Collection Museum presents High Society, open 11 November 2010 – 27 February 2011.
With the illicit drug trade estimated by the UN at $320 billion (£200bn) a year and new drugs constantly appearing on the streets and the internet, it can seem as if we are in the grip of an unprecedented level of addiction. Yet the use of psychoactive drugs is nothing new, and indeed our most familiar ones – alcohol, coffee and tobacco – have all been illegal in the past.
Collective intoxication 4:20 Day at the University of Colorado Mark Leffingwell, photographic print, 2008. Courtesy of the artist
From ancient Egyptian poppy tinctures to Victorian cocaine eye drops, Native American peyote rites to the salons of the French Romantics, mind-altering drugs have a rich history. ‘High Society’ will explore the paths by which these drugs were first discovered – from apothecaries’ workshops to state-of-the-art laboratories – and how they came to be simultaneously fetishised and demonised in today’s culture.
‘High Society’ is supported by a diverse series of events. Invesitage the psychological perspective on drugs at a special Packed Lunch, enjoy ‘Kaffeine und Kuchen’ in the style of 18th-century Leipzig, explore the definition of a drug and more.
Packed Lunch: Drugs with Celia Morgan
1 December 2010, 13.00-13.45. What’s it like being a scientist with a licence to possess illegal drugs? Celia Morgan, a psychologist at UCL, works on cannabis and ketamine, conducting experiments on people who are high on their own supply to determine the effect of drugs on their cognitive function.
Describing the Drug Experience
2 December 2010, 19.00-20.30. Drugs that alter consciousness can only be fully described by human subjects – often reporting wildly different experiences. Can science make sense of these subjective experiences, or are they better conveyed by artists or writers?
Kaffeine und Kuchen
December 2010 and January 2011. Be transported to the coffee houses of 18th-century Leipzig in this immersive evening of music and mind-altering substances.
What is a Drug?
20 January 2011, 19.00-20.30. Mind-altering drugs are a universal habit, but an acquired taste: one culture’s religious sacrament is another’s public health problem. How did the contemporary category of ‘drug’ come into being, and how do attitudes differ across other times and places?
Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, UK
Phone: +44 (0)20 7611 2222
www.wellcomecollection.org