The Entropic Page

Abby Petranovic

To you, the reader:

This preface begins with the idea that perception is not fixed, but constructed, and within certain conditions it can be loosened. 

The entropic brain hypothesis suggests that under psychedelics, the brain enters a state of increased entropy—less constrained, less governed by habitual patterns, and more open to variation. In this state, distinctions blur, hierarchies flatten, and new associations become possible. What emerges is not disorder for its own sake, but a different mode of organization—one that is fluid, excessive, and difficult to fix into a single meaning. The self, opportunity, creativity, and meaning bloom in this state.

The Entropic Page is structured around that condition.

Its structure follows the five stages of a psychedelic experience—set and setting, the come up, peak, plateau, and integration— serving as both a narrative and experiential device for you, the reader. As you move through the chapters, the material will shift in density, clarity, and form. Contexts blur—science into music, history into sensation, theory into image— mirroring the way psychedelics dissolve the boundaries we rely on to make sense of the world.

The research that grounds this work spans phenomenology, neuroscience, and countercultural theory. It positions psychedelic experience as simultaneously perceptual, political, creative, and cultural. But this book does not attempt to resolve those domains into a single, stable meaning. Instead, it holds them in tension—allowing contradictions, overlaps, and excess to coexist.

Because this project cannot stand alone as purely analytical. 

While the book is grounded in research, much of its visual language was produced through an intuitive process informed by psychedelic states. The act of making became immersive, nonlinear, and at times disorienting. Control gave way to intuition. Structure dissolved into sensation. What began as investigation became participation.

The visual language of this book is a direct result of that shift.

Every image, texture, and composition you encounter was created through an intuitive process. Working with psilocybin and sound, I allowed synesthetic perception—where colour, form, and rhythm collapse into one another—to dictate the outcome. These works were not designed with any intent of a fixed outcome. The resulting works are not illustrations of the text. They are parallel translations of experience, developed through a different mode of attention.

For this reason, the book resists clarity in places. It resists resolution. It asks you to sit within ambiguity, to navigate without full orientation, to notice what emerges when meaning is not immediately given.

Like any psychedelic experience, what you take from this will depend on how you enter it—your expectations, your attention, your willingness to let go. This is your set and setting. The rest unfolds from there.

So move through it slowly. Or not.
Follow what pulls you.
Let pages interrupt you.
Let meaning arrive late, or not at all.

For there is no correct way to move through it.

Media

ABOUT THE DESIGNER

Abby Petranovic

Abby Petranovic is a Publication and Mixed Media Designer specializing in typography, editorial design, and material-driven mixed media. Abby’s work is grounded in an ongoing curiosity about how mediums interact—how visual, physical, and textual elements influence one another to expand creative potential and shape our emotional experience of the world. At the core of Abby’s practice is a fascination with relationships: between materials, between disciplines, and between people and place. This curiosity is fueled by travel and a broader desire to understand how environments inspire new modes of seeing. Pillared by sustainable methods and a spirit of exploration guide her approach, encouraging her to work responsively with texture, form, and narrative. Music is an essential part of her process; it provides rhythm and atmosphere, allowing her interdisciplinary skills to converge into cohesive visual compositions. Abby approaches design as both research and intuition—experimenting with materials, testing interactions between mediums, and allowing each project to reveal its own logic. Typography and layout become tools for storytelling, while mixed media techniques offer a tactile dimension that anchors Abby’s work in materiality. Looking forward, Abby aims to evolve her practice through projects that merge publication design with the rich sensory experience of travel and place. She hopes to work within a travel-focused publication or collaborative environment where bold typography, immersive layouts, and textural visual language can intersect with her passion for exploration. Abby’s goal is to create work that not only informs but invites readers to experience the world more vividly.

Scroll to Top