Recipes for the Mind

About Recipes for the Mind

A chronicle of re-remembering: an artist reflects on art, technology, consumption, near-death experiences, encounters with the wild, psychedelics, time travel, failure and courage.

Beginning in 2014, the artist Charles Lindsay began to dream “recipes” in the crepuscule of the subconscious. In this book, these feverishly written texts, many of which began as bedside jottings, are joined with images: photographs from Lindsay’s past, present, and imagined future. Recipes for the Mind offers a chronicle of re-remembering, a more nuanced mashup of chronologies than the linear documentary narratives Lindsay peddled earlier in life as a photojournalist hanging out with shamans in Asia and golf-ball-wielding grizzly bears in Montana.

Lindsay’s recent work as an artist has pushed (and sometimes torn) the envelope of possibility, creating immersive environments, augmented realities, new chemical and digital life forms that are technically complicated, expensive to produce, and amorphous, requiring dedicated spaces at impossible scales. Recipes for the Mind is a return to words, photographs, and a book—things that can be enjoyed almost anywhere. Lindsay reflects on art, technology, consumption, near-death experiences, encounters with the wild, psychedelics, time travel, failure, and courage. There are clues embedded in the pairings of words and images; solve the riddle, then come over for supper. Bring your friends—he will cook for you.