The term psychedelic animation refers to animated works that mirror altered states of consciousness through techniques such as "visual patterns of hallucination, cryptic symbols, perception of cellular or atomic forms, and strange journeys or narratives." [1]
Dr. Maureen Furniss, a historian of animation at the California Institute of the Arts, defines psychedelia as "[m]usic or visual art based on the hallucinatory experiences produced by psychedelic drugs" (446). She employs "psychedelic" as a key term on page 273 in her A New History of Animation textbook to refer to both form (e.g. the colorful and fantastical imagery of Marcell Jankovics's Son of the White Mare ) and content (e.g. the visualization of "thoughts and dreams" in Sally Cruikshank's Quasi at the Quackadero). [2]
The following is a chronological list of psychedelic animations - that is, animated works that depict the inner world of the psyche (as per the original usage of the term "psychedelic" coined by Humphry Osmond [3] ), as opposed to more externally- or objectively-oriented form and content. Fantastical works on their own are not necessarily psychedelic, as they can present a reality that appears to be shared among characters of a particular story (i.e. fantasy works may not occur within the mind of a single character); however, many fantastical works can be symbolic of the interior journey of the psyche writ large (e.g. see Jung's concepts of Individuation and Collective unconscious).
This list is in chronological order and divided into the distinct categories of Short Films (including Anthology collections of short films), TV Shows, Feature Films, and Related (e.g. works that are not predominantly psychedelic but contain psychedelic sequences, works that are not predominantly animated but include sequences of animation, etc.)
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