Recently, I was teleported to a place outside of measurable time and space . . .  a vision of what I can hope the future to be –  where prisms bleed into sharpened infinity and space unfolds into a spectroscopic sea of kaleidoscopic forms – a place comparable only to the illusive visions encountered in dreams, delusions, and maybe LSD.

Nana Ghana defies space and time in her performance as seen through a pair of Future Eyes.
Photo: Future Eyes

But this was a perfect image not conceived through REM, mind-control, or psychedelics.  Instead, what I experienced was optical teleportation everyone can have with a pair of Future Eyes.  The fruition of LA based artist, writer, and inventor Brent Pearson – “Future Eyes” himself – Future Eyes are a line of handcrafted laser-cut crystal glasses that are “eyewear for the soul.”  Upon closer inspection, and confirmation from their maker, the tree of life is delicately visible and replicated on each faceted crystal lens.  These kaleidoscopic frames have acquired a following of believers, users, and future purveyors throughout LA and perhaps even worldwide (since they are made to order online).  In preparation for an upcoming book surveying the various visual manifestations and employments beheld through their vision, Future Eyes hosted a group Fotoshow at one of downtown LA’s newest artist-run, Do-It-Together complexes, The LA Fort.

View of installation by Ariel Rose of Indigo Orangutan. Photo: Sharsten

For the first incarnation of the Fotoshow series, an open call for photos was conducted with each invitation complete with a complimentary pair of Future Eyes.  The result accumulated in the group Fotoshow #1  exhibition, tracing optical excursions and experimentation with Future Eyes vision.   I myself am an avid crystal and diffracted lens junkie, but this crystal is like magic . . . and the obsessive quantity of photos that ensued is evidence of how entranced I was in the ephemeral, prismatic, patterned landscapes they led me through.  Documenting the space and time travel of each participant, a selection of photos taken through Future Eyes hung the walls throughout the event’s ballad of live performances, meditations, and audiovisual stimulations.  The evening’s highlights included a guided solstice meditation led by Maria Calderon, a hypnotic performance by Nana Ghana, visuals by MYSTERR + Torie Zalben, Alec Singer, and a live act from Miss M.E (Meghan Edwards).  In addition to all of that, luminescent textiles lined the pyramidal installation pictured by Ariel Rose of Indigo Orangutan.  Part of an ongoing “creation station” project, Indigo Orangutan‘s Gospel of Genesis is “a communal offering of paints and instruments in order to stimulate imagination and creation,” inviting guests to cozy-up and paint among a sea of saturated fabric and cosmic-clad, stationed artists.

Artist as part of Ariel Rose of Indigo Orangutan’s installation.
Photo: Kelsey Hart for DUM DUM zine

Each element of the evening seemed to be an invocation inspiring heightened sensory awareness, with the collective congregation around the multi-faceted crystalline Future Eyes itself spatial evidence of how easy it can be to step-into a realm of acute, limitless, and unified perception.  One of the many significant mythological and religious connotations referenced through the tree of life is how the divine manifests creation.  Through Future Eyes and immersive investigations demanding us to isolate and experience one of our senses in a new way, we can cross-over to a higher state of being and traverse an altered plane of perception – one where the dream-world and the real-world are rendered visible in one indistinguishable, perfect frame.

“11-11” inkjet print on mylar by Sharsten.
Photo: Sharsten

As the Future Eyes Foto Book Project is compiled, and as I anticipate the next installment of Fotoshows, I will continue to favor my own kaleidoscopic lenses.  To submit photos for the forthcoming Future Eyes Foto Book Project and tune into what’s on the future’s horizon visit futureeyes.org.  Our lovely friends at DUM DUM zine, an LA-based collective publishing experimental literature and art, were also in attendance and documented the evening’s extrasolar journey through this photo narrative.