2018/01/02 by Daniel Siepmann · 1 voice · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies #Music History and Culture #Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
paper · doi:10.1080/01411896.2018.1413870
openalex publication_date 2018/01/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
This article bridges two underground music networks that relied on inventive communications tactics to both obscure their movement and reach new followers: Genesis P-Orridge’s chaos magick sect Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, with its artistic mouthpiece Psychic TV (c. 1981–1991), and the Internet-based electronic music micro-genre witch house (c. 2008–2013). Though outwardly synergetic in their aesthetic and operational commitments, a focus on the underlying occult agenda of each reveals an exploitative situation—witch house assumes the mantle of the Psychic TV/TOPY project, while concurrently undermining the ritual-driven “cultural engineering” that predicated its existence.