High Society - The Welcome Collection

The exhibition examines the history of drugs ( familiar and unfamiliar) from their plan origins and their early use through to their development into the synthetic chemicals they are today. I looks at the use of these drugs in the context of history and culture, weather the drug use was for recreational , experimental, religious or medical purposes; all documented by texts, photography, video and art.

From apothecary to laboratory looks at documentation of drug taking past and present and the effects, with books from the 17^th and 18^th century detailing opium in every possible respect to 1990’s photolithograpths depicting the interests of a crack addict.

Self experimentation looks at the many scientists, artists and philosophers retrospectively that have thought self experimentation crucial in understanding drugs and their effects on the body and mind. Examples I found particularly interesting were the writers; Thomas de Quincey and later Fitz Hugh Ludlow who both became dependent on drugs (opium and Hasheesh) and recorded the pleasure and pains of their relationship with their chosen drug, all in the name of research. Also the ‘seven sisters of sleep’ by Mordecai which describes a variety of drug substances and their effects on consciousness, a book which was supposedly picked up by Lewis Carroll shortly before Alice in wonderland was published. Even with all the past self examination and recent advances in neuroscience, we still can’t fully explain subjective experiences that drugs produce and why each persons experience can differ so greatly.

Collective intoxication looks at the social aspect of drug taking as shared experience can be such a powerful aspect within drug cultures. I think the most interesting thing about this section is the insight into how differently drugs are used in other cultures to our own. At a time when western attitudes about drugs were shifting to a negative people looked to other cultures and non-western ways of life where drugs can be seen as a way of reaching a higher level of understanding about reality and self. Cultures where drugs were seen as divine not demonised.

A sin, a crime, a vice or a disease looked at the illegalisation of drugs. By the end of the 19^th century there was a broad consensus that the drug trade needed to be controlled, many ideas were proposed but fell into three broad categories; education, medicalisation and criminalisation, these remain the basic tools of drug control today. The exhibition showed information about legislation, along with propaganda and health information leaflets produced by many different organisations with various underlying agendas.

My favourite parts of the exhibition were defiantly the self experimentation section as it showed how altering conscious and mind, or observing the work of people who have, can be a great source of inspiration. And the collective intoxication section as it shows how subcultures can have a massive influence on social ideologies and highlight ways of living that are so different from what we know.