patches, post-rave lies somewhere between extreme sports and a cargo cult for
cyborgs.
Post-ravers thus adopt electro-techniques of the Self, a slight variation of the
‘technologies of the self’ which Foucault identified as permitting individuals to
effect ‘a number of operations on their bodies and souls, thought, conduct and way
of being, so as to transform themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness,
purity, wisdom, perfection or immortality’ (Foucault 1988:18; cited in Pini 2001:
144). New techniques of self-perfection possess varied currency in the techno milieu.
Events with a typically Eastern inflection such as Earthdance, where workshops on
Chi Kung, Pranic healing, Wushu and Reiki take place,^4 seem to enable participants
to Orient themselves. Other cultural products like the techno documentary Better
Living Through Circuitry—an update on the LSD-referenced 1960s slogan Better
Living Through Chemistry (filched by several removes from the original DuPont
slogan)—illustrate the posthuman edge thought obtainable with the assistance of
electronic machines, or the ‘futurhyth-machines’ which, Eshun (1998:104)
explains, Detroit techno artists and other Afro-futurists have manipulated to
‘technofy’ themselves. The ‘techniques’ are transparent in documentaries like Ray
Castle’s Japo-futurist Tokyo Techno Tribes (2002) and futurist digital art installed at
events, such as the body of work created by Melbourne mixed-media artist Deja
Voodoo (Phil Woodman), which constitutes, he explains, ‘a visual accelerator, an
activation tool designed to trigger cellular memories...reigniting the DNA blueprint
of the light body enabling access to the higher vibration of the 5th dimension’.^5
Since the ‘electronic enzymes’ of digital music and visual art are potent when
combined with other technologies of transformation, especially LSD, earlier
preferences for ‘better living’ endure.
Comprised of the holistic body—mind—spirit, Self is, by itself, a ‘technology’ to
be understood and harnessed. Those in the techno-rave milieu are reminded, as they
are in Australia’s Tranc.ition’s Global Eyes Yearbook 2002, of their ‘self-
metaprogramming’ capabilities, that they may empower themselves through gaining
control of their ‘inner and outer biotechnologies’ (Phillips 2002:23). Self-formatting
through ‘neurochemical prosthesis’ (Hill 1999:106) therefore remains critical to
current chemical generations. In early 1990s London and San Francisco, ‘smart bars’
and ‘nutrient cafes’ dispensed cybertonics and nootropics (Rushkoff 1994:131–48),
and ‘Virtuali Tea’ rooms boasted brainwave synchronizers (‘brain machines’).
Musicians like System 7 developed music to ‘manipulate brainwaves and entrain
people’ (as portrayed in the trance documentary Liquid Crystal Vision) and
organizations like Visionary Music Inc. have implemented ‘Energy Enhancement
Environments’. While these ‘consciousness technologies’ (cf. Dery 1996:57–8) are
thought to improve memory and cognitive capabilities or assist conscious evolution,
the most celebrated and far-reaching means of self-programming resided in inducing
the euphoric sensation dubbed ‘entactogenesis’ (Push and Silcott 2000:8) by actively
triggering the release and inhibiting the re-uptake of serotonin—a mood-shaping
neurotransmitter stimulated by the compound MDMA (ecstasy or ‘E’).^6
LIBERATION AND THE RAVE IMAGINARY 23