What

We call them Audio Acid Trips, or sometimes Audio Dérives. These experiences are sound-guided journeys, often tethered through physical, sensorial portals, that take you into the space of lucid dreaming. All your brain needs to access the strange bright black magic it is already capable of is an invitation. These Trips create the conditions for you to explore using your innate imagination, zero drugs required.

Why & Who

The creative brain/soulchild of artist Kelly Vicars and myself, Audio Acid Trips are one of the core offerings of our studio: BATH Creative. BATH is a collaborative design endeavor exploring collective dreaming as an ally in nurturing de-colonized imagination. We have produced Audio Acid Trip experiences for a convening of hospital workers, death doulas, physicians, and tribal elders to help explore the future of health equity, for a closing ceremony for IDEO.org’s annual gathering to understand systems design in an emotional and deeply personal way, for a national design convening in Dubai in partnership with Palmwood’s design magazine Yellow to investigate the sentiments of “Limbo,” and for design teams across the world to activate creativity, get unstuck, and immerse in new paradigms of thinking.

Emergent questions

• How do we re-enchant our known realities? 

• How do we access the unparalleled creative capacity of our imaginations?

• How do we de-colonize our imaginations to engage a more equitable and beautiful future?