Category:
Art
Art
Road Maps: real and imaginary
An unusual hobby: Adrian Leskiw designs fictional cities and nations, and then he draws roadmaps of them. In painstaking detail. He describes himself as a "roadgeek". You can browse through his collection of fictional roadmaps at The Map Realm. One use I can think of for these would be to sneak them into rental cars. (Mislabel them, of course.) Tourists would spend hours examining them, trying to figure out where they were.
But wait, there's more. Leskiw also collects covers of real roadmaps. He has an extensive collection of the official Michigan, Ontario and Ohio road maps. In the old days transportation departments apparently hired artists to design these covers. Now they seem to just slap generic photos on them.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 25, 2008 -
Comments (4)
Category: Art, Regionalism, Travel
Ted Williams Estate Auction
Well, now many of his possessions are up for sale at auction, including, ironically, a number of severed animal-head trophies. And also some fine "space alien" paintings and drawings by daughter Claudia, like the one at right.
Check out an article and photo gallery here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Nov 23, 2008 -
Comments (0)
Category: Art, Celebrities, Death, Eccentrics, Collectors, Historical Figure
Silhouette Masterpiece Theatre
In his Silhouette Masterpiece Theatre Wilhelm Staehle places silhouettes over Victorian paintings, and adds a subversive caption. Two of my favorites below.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 18, 2008 -
Comments (3)
Category: Art, Humor
Underwater Sculpture
Jason deCaires Taylor has received international acclaim for his sculpture park in Grenada, West Indies. Though to view it, it helps to be a diver, because it's underwater.I think it's a swell idea. If I'm ever in Grenada, I'll make sure to sea it.
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Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 15, 2008 -
Comments (1)
Category: Art, Statues, Monuments and Memorials
George W. Flush
In honor of election day: the George W. Flush urinal, created by urinal artist Clark Sorensen:This piece is a preview of Clark's up coming solo exhibit: "DOWN THE DRAIN - THE LEGACY OF GEORGE W. BUSH" Clark is holding an election night party to watch the elections results roll in and give George W. what he deserves - a good flush!
Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 04, 2008 -
Comments (6)
Category: Art, Politics
Chewing Gum Sculptor
I recently met a woman who could tie a knot in the stem of a maraschino cherry with her tongue. I thought that was pretty impressive. But what this Romanian chewing gum sculptor can do is even more impressive.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 04, 2008 -
Comments (4)
Category: Art, Performance Art, Food, Video
First WEIRD UNIVERSE Contest!!!
Here's the deal:
The single prize is a used but in-good-shape trade paperback copy of Ricky Jay's Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women, an essential handbook for any true lover of the weird.
Please make your guess in the COMMENTS section of this post, not through email. Priority of the response, in the case of multiple correct guesses, determines the winner.
When we have a winner, I'll get their snailmail and post the book with some of my mailart on the envelope.
Good luck, and play nice!
Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 27, 2008 -
Comments (6)
Category: Art, Weird Universe, Contest, Books
Weird Poster
If anyone can possibly explain the meaning of this poster, please do so.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 20, 2008 -
Comments (14)
Category: Aliens, Art, Sexuality, Signage, Posters, Gender-bending
The Life Clock
The Life Clock is the creation of artist Bertrand Planes. Each number represents a year of your life. It assumes that you're not going to live past 84. After that, you're evidently on borrowed time. I think the numbers should be spaced to reflect the subjective experience of time -- with the first half of the clock going from 0 to 21, and all the remaining years crammed into the second half. (Thanks, Sandy!)
Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 06, 2008 -
Comments (8)
Category: Art
Anger and Landscape Art
Do you feel angry and frustrated sitting in your windowless cubicle grinding away at a dead-end job? Recent research (published in the journal Environment and Behavior) indicates there may be an easy way to brighten your mood, at least if you're a man. Hang a few art posters.Researchers at Texas A&M University conducted an experiment in a simulated office. Participants were told that the researchers were investigating performance on a variety of computer tasks. In reality, the computer tasks were designed to "provoke stress and anger." The question was whether the artwork hanging on the wall (abstract art, nature posters, abstract and nature posters, or no art) would modify people's moods. The conclusion:
We found that nature and abstract art posters have a significant influence on state anger and stress for male participants but not for female participants. Male participants experienced less state anger when there are art posters on the wall of the office setting than when no art posters are present. They also experienced less stress when there were mixed abstract and nature art posters or all nature art posters.
It's not clear why men are calmed by wall art, but not women. Maybe men are just simpler creatures.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 29, 2008 -
Comments (5)
Category: Art, Science, Experiments
| Who We Are |
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |