#plastic exploding inevitable show

[mannymuc]

Plastic Fantastic

Inventing the 1960s Happening.:Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable with The Velvet Underground and Nico

[reidmarieprentiss]

Heyyy so this is very specific 😅

Remember the fisher king part 2 episode when Spencer escapes the bomb? So imagine the bomb part happened in a different case (because I need Emily and Dave in) and he had to go to the hospital because of some wounds (he’s really fine but the team insisted) So they go to the hospital.

They could see Spencer was nervous looking around like he was scared, Morgan, JJ and Emily just thought it was the germaphobic thing. While Hotch and Dave (the only ones who knew) already had a bet on: how long will it take to Spencer’s partner, a doctor at the hospital they’re in, showed up screaming at Spencer for risking his life (again).

And guess what happens? They show up with steam coming out of her ears. Ready to scold Spencer. They ask him what happened and he keep it simple “I just got fell” and she turns to hotch and Dave “is that true” you choose who ditches on Spencer. While all of that happens JJ Emily and Morgan are like “wtf is going on???? “Reid has a partner???!”

I told you it was specific 😭

Love Doctor

Pairing: Spencer Reid x gn!reader

Category: fluff

Warnings/Includes: mentions of a bomb

Word count: 712

a/n: this was so cute i love this ask!!!

main masterlist

As the team walks into the hospital, Spencer tries to hide the unease coursing through him. The incident with the bomb was behind them, but his nerves were anything but settled. He knew what was coming, and it wasn’t just the doctors poking and prodding at him. Morgan, JJ, and Emily exchange glances, assuming Spencer’s discomfort is due to his well-known aversion to hospitals and germs.

“You’re gonna be fine, pretty boy,” Morgan says, patting Spencer on the shoulder. “Just a few scratches, and you’ll be out of here in no time.”

“Yeah, Spence, it’s not like they’re gonna make you stay the night or anything,” JJ adds with a reassuring smile.

Emily nods, her tone light as she says, “You’ll be out of here before you know it, probably before they can even make you wear one of those hospital gowns.”

Spencer forces a tight smile, his eyes darting nervously around the busy hospital hallway. His heart races, not because of the minor injuries he sustained but because he knows who works here. Hotch and Rossi, walking a few paces ahead, exchange a knowing look. They’ve both seen this play out before, and although they’d never admit it, they’re both wondering how long it will take for the inevitable confrontation to occur.

Just as Spencer is about to sit down on one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs, he hears a familiar voice, sharp and filled with exasperation.

“Spencer Reid!”

The sound of his full name, spoken with that particular tone, makes Spencer cringe. He turns slowly, already bracing himself for the storm about to hit. You, his partner, a doctor at the hospital, storms toward him, your face a mixture of relief and fury. The rest of the team watches in shock as you approach, eyes blazing with anger.

“What were you thinking?” you demand, not bothering to lower your voice. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? You could’ve—” You stop yourself, taking a deep breath, clearly trying to calm down but failing spectacularly.

Spencer rubs the back of his neck, looking sheepish. “I, uh… I just fell.”

You narrow your eyes, turning their attention to Hotch and Rossi, who are both standing with their arms crossed, attempting (and failing) to hide their amusement. “Is that true? Did he just fall?”

Rossi, not missing a beat, smirks and says, “I’d say he more or less threw himself into harm’s way, but ‘falling’ works too.”

Hotch, with a slight nod, adds, “There might have been a bomb involved.”

Your eyes flash with irritation as you look back at Spencer. “A bomb? You said you fell!”

Spencer shrinks a little under your gaze. “Well, I did fall… after the bomb went off.”

You look like you’re about to explode, but instead, you take another deep breath and pinch the bridge of your nose. “Spencer…”

Meanwhile, Morgan, JJ, and Emily are standing off to the side, their jaws practically on the floor. JJ is the first to speak, her voice low with shock. “Wait… Reid has a partner? A partner who’s a doctor?”

Emily, eyes wide, whispers back, “And they’re yelling at him… like he’s a kid caught sneaking out of the house.”

Morgan, unable to contain his amusement, chuckles. “This just got interesting.”

You turn back to Spencer, your voice softer now but still firm. “You’re coming home with me after this, and we’re going to have a serious talk about you risking your life like this. Again.”

Spencer nods quickly, knowing better than to argue. “Yes, my love.”

As you usher Spencer towards the examination room, Morgan, JJ, and Emily exchange looks of bewilderment and amusement. Hotch and Rossi follow at a distance, satisfied with how things have unfolded.

Emily, still stunned, leans over to Morgan. “I think we just met the one person who can actually scare Reid.”

Morgan grins. “I think you’re right.”

JJ, shaking her head in disbelief, murmurs, “I didn’t even know he was dating someone…”

As they all watch Spencer disappear into the examination room with his partner, a new wave of curiosity and respect for their genius colleague washes over them. They’ve just witnessed a side of Spencer Reid they never knew existed, and none of them are sure how to process it.

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tag list <333 @dirtytissuebox @yokaimoon @khxna @noelliece @dreamsarebig @sleepey-looney @cocobean16 @placidus @criminalmindssworld @lilu842 @greatoperawombategg @charismatic-writer @fxoxo @hearts4spensco @furrybouquettrash @kathrynlakestone @chaneladdicted @time-himself @mentallyunwellsposts @sapph1re @idefktbh17 @gilwm @reggieswriter @loumouse @spencerreidsreads @i-live-in-spite @fanfic-viewer @bootylovers44 @atheniandrinkscoffee @niktwazny303

[blueishspace]

Grian could be an avatar for most of the Magnus Archives entities if you think about it.

The Eye is the most obvious one cause he's a Watcher and his obsession with knowing everything all the time doesn't help his case.

The Web, you could nake a cause about being the mastermind for so many events. The civil war happened because of him, the mayoral elections happened because of him, the life series also him, the crossover was because of him. Also the soulbounds are usually represented as spider like strings forcing players together so there's that.

The Lonely too, especially life series Grian. Always finding teammates, burying them and then abandoning them. Not only that though, he was isolated in highschool and being abandoned sticks with him as a theme everywhere he goes.

The Dull is the newest one and...yeah, permit office Grian is all I have to say about it. Doubt anything else is needed.

The Corruption makes me think of Mother Spore, honestly that's just the most obvious example of it though. There's also the morbid attachement and codependency that links to the already mentioned issues with isolation. And the snails, the snails too.

The Vast, there is his season 6 base. A tall spire to the clouds in the middle of the ocean. There is constant connections to both sky and the sea, how good he is at flying, soo good that the fandom gave him wings.

The Dark, the mooners and not sleeping the night away, the connections to the void, the boatem hole. He doesn't even have eyes, just holes filled with pure darkness.

The Stranger, there are all his skins and dusguises. From being forced to impersonate Taurtis to Ariana and Sherlock Grian and the fisherman and every other outfit and persona he has played. He's a natural born imitator, no wonder his power was that to copy other's own.

The End, what can I tell you about this? There's demise, a constant reminder of the inevitability of death. There's the life series which is literally demise but worse. Even the way the permit office is designed is very Terminus-like... Well that and also Spiral-like which brings us to:

The Spiral, there's the permit office of course, there's also the white voids rooms made entirely to trap and confuse people inside them. Sure BigB is so much better at it then Grian is but not all avatars are the same so...

The Flesh too is pretty obvious, there's the weird forms like the backward one and the side one and the upside down one that are in canon pretty horrifying. There's also Butcher/Cannibal Grian from that murder mystery video which I feel alone should be enough.

The Slaughter, the man is literally known as the guy who starts war. Also he created a series of very violent death games where people are forced to fight eachother to the death again and again and again, this one is pretty obvious.

The Buried definitely has It's connections, from chocking on plastic showed down is throat to shallow breathing in a cell deep underground to falling breathless into the void beneath the world to living at the bottom of the ocean in multiple series.

Even the desolation fits considering the whole exploding an entire desert and exploding the mansion and settings his own base on fire and summoning the wither and just...so much uneeded destruction done only for It's own sake.

The Exctinction is a little harder but the man did kinda get involved with the end of two different worlds and almost caused the destruction of Empires as well trough Grumbot so ...

The Hunt is really the only one I can't think of a connection.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

The Velvet Underground - La Cave, Cleveland, Ohio, April 28, 1968

Happy Sweet Sister Ray Day! This high holy day for Velvet Underground fanatics is always worth celebrating. But today, on the 57th anniversary, it's especially worth celebrating because Mr. Charlie has unearthed an "extraordinary, previously uncirculated low generation source tape" of this legendary Jamie Klimek recording, which has been bootlegged in inferior quality for decades now.

We're still talking about an audience tape from 1968, of course, but I'm going to agree that "extraordinary" is the right word to use — there's a new clarity and crispness here that blows away any previous version I've heard. And that is great news, because "Sweet Sister Ray" is one of my favorite things in the world. Thank you, Mr. Charlie! And thank you to the late/great Jamie Klimek for bringing his gear to La Cave all those years ago and capturing this unbelievable performance.

In case you need a deeper dive, you can read my long essay "The Velvet Underground's Elusive 'Sweet Sister Ray'" after the jump ...

Recorded at a tiny subterranean Cleveland, OH club called La Cave in late April of 1968, “Sweet Sister Ray” isn’t exactly a song, per se. It’s a close-to-40-minute jam, a languid, endless boogie. The audience tape we can listen to all these years later is murky, but that feels appropriate. “Sweet Sister Ray” is nothing if not a murky experience. 

The journey kicks off with the band (most likely just Cale, Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison; drummer Maureen Tucker isn’t audible here) chugging steadily, slowly over a spare, spidery riff. It’s easygoing, like they have no particular place to go, though there’s an underlying tension and menace. Reed’s guitar spirals off into a more abstract direction for a bit, almost reminiscent of Roger McGuinn’s flights of fancy on “Eight Miles High.” You lean in. What exactly is going on?  Is the band just warming up? Is there even anyone (aside from the taper) in the club? Through the murk, a decidedly surreal atmosphere develops. The music continues at a morphine-drip pace, drifting and droning, with Morrison playing a nervier counterpoint to Reed’s laconic fretwork, Cale rattling around in the background. At some point around the half-hour mark, Cale switches over to keyboards, lending the proceedings a curiously magisterial feel, as Reed begins coaxing beautiful, simmering feedback from his amp. It’s as if some new genre of music is being invented on the spot.

Extended live improvisations were, of course, nothing new to the VU. The aforementioned Columbus, OH show in 1966 features two marathon performances, “Melody Laughter” and “The Nothing Song,” that showcase the band’s most adventurous, avant-garde leanings.  But those pieces were created to complement the extravagant multimedia overload of Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable, with dancers, lights and films adding to the experience. La Cave might’ve had a light show, but it was undoubtedly low-tech. On this particular night in Cleveland, it was just the Velvet Underground, the small audience and “Sweet Sister Ray.”

We haven’t even mentioned that throughout the song, Reed has been stepping up to the mic from time to time to sing a few verses. The lyrics may be off-the-cuff (Reed was known for his ability to generate lyrics at will), but they’re not indecipherable. In fact, they might even tell a fairly cohesive story, a veritable prequel to the actual “Sister Ray,” as our titular protagonist watches a movie — “the weirdest movie I’ve seen in my days.”

Reed goes on to sing about a topic he was intimately familiar with: electroshock therapy. “All the vaseline on your forehead / makes you feel so nice,” he deadpans. “My hair stood on end / and I thought I’d been frozen with a knife.” It’s a thinly veiled slice of autobiography — Reed was subjected to electroshock as a teenager to curb his homosexual tendencies — where you’d least expect it. And the final lyrics feel even more hauntingly personal, if still oblique: “Just then I saw a hole in the ground / and I jumped right in ‘cause there was no one around.” Down the rabbit hole young Lou eagerly goes, to rock and roll, to Warhol, to the dangerous and thrilling dreamscapes of “Sister Ray” itself. Which is right where the rest of the Velvets join him back in Cleveland, as Moe Tucker finally ambles onstage and beings thumping out that unmistakable beat and they segue into what was likely an even wilder excursion. Alas, it’s at this point that the tape fades out …

So where did “Sweet Sister Ray” go after La Cave? There’s some indication that it was further refined and developed into “Sweet Rock And Roll,” a mythical lost VU number from the summer of ‘68. Lou’s old sparring partner Lester Bangs is mostly responsible for the legend, calling the performance he witnessed in San Diego, CA “the most incredible musical experiences” of his life. “It was built on the most dolorous riff imaginable, just a few scales rising and falling mournfully, somewhat like ‘Venus In Furs’ but less creaky, more deliberate and eloquent.” Bangs even quotes some of the lyrics, which fall into line with what Reed was singing a few months earlier in Cleveland: “Sweet Sister Ray went to a movie / The floor was painted red and the walls were green / ‘Ooooh,’ she cried / ‘This is the strangest movie I’ve ever seen.’”

Will we ever hear “Sweet Rock And Roll”? Probably not. But Sterling Morrison claimed that a tape of the show Bangs wrote about was made, but quickly added that it was “stolen that very night. Stolen within seconds, actually. As soon as it ended, it vanished, never to reappear on this earth.”

[majormisunderstanding]

The Dom Nightclub in New York during 1966. Here Andy Warhol staged the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, featuring music by the Velvet Underground, dancing by Edie Sedgwick & Gerald Malanga, along with light shows and Warhol films.

Photo by Fred W. McDarrah.

[de-salva]

CAM FORRESTER - 'A Symphony Of Sound' by The Velvet Underground (part 1)

"Multi-instrumental artist CAM FORRESTER performs an authentic interpretation of a 1966 rehearsal by The Velvet Underground entitled 'A Symphony Of Sound'. The band originally performed the improvised jam (which lasted almost an hour) in June 1966, at Andy Warhol’s studio, ‘The Factory’, in New York. The rehearsal was filmed by Warhol himself, using several experimental filming techniques (most notably erratic panning and fast in-and-out zooming) and was one of the many films he made that would be used for projections in the subsequent 'Exploding Plastic Inevitable' multi-media shows. This cover version is based on the audio of the film, and is essentially a highlight-compilation of the interesting musical ideas exhibited by the band during the session".

* This recording contains a sample of a viola solo performed by John Cale (accompanied by Maureen Tucker), which was sourced from an audio excerpt of the film 'The Velvet Underground and Nico' (a.k.a. A Symphony Of Sound) by Andy Warhol © 1966 The Museum Of Modern Art Film Library.

[just-prime]

Why does Ahsoka care?

That's the question that I keep coming back to. Why does she care about Thrawn? Why is she afraid of him? I mean, she clearly is, and it makes no sense. Ahsoka never interacted with him. She was off being Schrödinger's OC before Filoni invented time travel to save her.

So why does she care enough to hunt down Morgan Elsbeth in the first place???

Now we follow this up, with a sentiment that I know I am not alone on...

Why would Thrawn care?

There's no reason he would. He's had six books of character development since his appearance in Rebels, all of which point towards him wanting to go home, to his people, and his boyfriend. The man was actively committing treason against the Empire left and right by the end, and was probably on his way to getting executed by Palps had he not been purrgil-ed, so I ask again? Why is everyone so convinced that he is the "heir to the empire" other than the fact that Filoni is dragging everyone out of their previous characterizations to set the pieces in place for his HTTE fan film. Filoni doesn't care about the canon Thrawn, just like he doesn't care about keeping continuities consistant between his other recent shows. As seen by the fact that he's introducing a bunch of Thrawn allies who've never shown up before in any medium, and therefore feel rather hallow.

So why should we care?

I mean, I'm watching so my friends don't have to...So that my friends don't have to witness Sabine's helmet fly off like it's three sizes too big...So my friends are not subjected to Marrok's death where he explodes into green screaming gas (which makes me fear the "Thrawn has a nightsister magic corpse army" rumor is more than a rumor)...So that my friends aren't dealing with plastic de-aged Anakin showing up in the world between worlds...

And honestly, I think we should care. We should care about consistency, and continuity, and not just letting Filoni run wild now that he has the keys to the castle. We should care about the fact that characters we love are being butchered, be it Ahsoka, Sabine, Hera, or inevitably Thrawn.

If this continues to be the precedent, which I would argue it has been since TBoBF and Kenobi, then none of these characters are ever going to act the same across the universe of shows. It will become the norm that every time someone shows up, they will be new, or they will look different because Disney is apparently skimping on practical effects, or they're mere existence will be anachronistic. All because Dave Filoni thought it would be cool.

Also the obligatory...

Where the fuck is Zeb? Where the fuck is Kallus? Where the fuck is Rex? If Hera is going rogue against orders to SAVE EZRA, why is the only backup she's bringing her 7? (6? I can't do math, I am too angry) year old son???? I get being too chickenshit to bring the Skywalker twins into this or apparently even mentioning Kanan, even if I resent it, but YOU PEOPLE BUILD A MODEL FOR ZEB. YOU SHOWED IF OFF IN MANDALORIAN. WHY HAS HE NOT BEEN HERE FROM DAY ONE?

[longlistshort]

It was Andy Warhol’s birthday this past Tuesday, August 6th, so today seemed like a good time to post some images taken at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Warhol was a prolific artist and the museum does an excellent job at presenting both his body of work, and the essence of what made him such a unique presence in the world.

Below are a few selections from what was on view in February of 2024.

Warhol made several film works including Screen Tests, his series of portraits in which the subjects attempted to remain still for around three minutes. The results were then played back in slow motion. Many well known names participated.

The museum has a room dedicated to their recreation of his delightful installation Silver Clouds.

From the museum about this work-

“I don’t paint anymore, I gave it up about a year ago and just do movies now. I could do two things at the same time but movies are more exciting. Painting was just a phase I went through. But I’m doing some floating sculpture now: silver rectangles that I blow up and that float.” —Andy Warhol, 1966

In April 1966 Warhol opened his light and music extravaganza the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (EPI), a complete sensorial experience of light, music, and film at the Dom, a large dance hall in the East Village in New York City. Running concurrently with the EPI was Warhol’s bold and unconventional exhibition at the prestigious Leo Castelli Gallery that comprised two artworks: the Silver Clouds and Cow Wallpaper.

Constructed from metalized plastic film and filled with helium, the floating clouds were produced in collaboration with Billy Klüver, an engineer known for his work with artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Yvonne Rainer, and John Cage. Warhol originally asked Klüver to create floating light bulbs; an unusual shape that proved infeasible.

Klüver showed Warhol a sample of the silver material and his reaction to the plastic sparked a new direction, “Let’s make clouds.” They experimented with cumulus shapes, but the puffed rectangle was the most successful and most buoyant. The end result was w hat Warhol was looking for from the beginning— “paintings that could float.” Silver Clouds, like the EPI with its flashing lights and overlapping films, was an explosion of objects in space and presented an immersive, bodily experience for the viewer.

Warhol was always experimenting with new ideas and processes. Pictured above is Oxidation, 1978, and a closer look at the canvas. It is part of Altered States, an exhibition of this body of work and its creation.

Below the museum explains Warhol’s process, and how the paintings were altered both during past exhibitions, and again when the museum lost power and climate control.

Andy Warhol’s Oxidation paintings represent the artist’s radical approach to Abstract Expressionism, a movement popularized by painters like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko after World War II, and a style Warhol didn’t experiment with until late in his career. Between 1977 and 1978, however, when Warhol began testing the corrosive effects of oxidation by mixing copper paint and urine, the beautifully iridescent canvases were a critical breakthrough at a time when his standing in the art world had taken a hit. The Oxidation series, along with abstract works like the Rorschachs and Shadows, allowed Warhol to reinvent himself yet again.

To create the Oxidation works, Warhol and his assistants mixed dry metallic powder in water before adding acrylic medium as the binder.

Canvases were spread out on the studio floor and coated in copper paint. Warhol’s assistants or Factory visitors were then invited to urinate on the canvases while the paint was still wet. As the urine acid oxidized the metal in the copper paint, a range of unpredictable patterns emerged.

Before Warhol’s death in 1987, the Oxidation paintings were exhibited only three times, including the Paris Art Fair FIAC at the Grand Palais, where the artist first noticed the volatility of the works. “When I showed them in Paris, the hot lights made them melt again,” he said.

“It’s very weird.. they never stopped dripping.” More than 45 years later, unpredictability remains a hallmark of the series. In June of 2020, after a power outage disabled the museum’s climate control for several days, staff conservators noticed changes similar to what Warhol observed in Paris. New drips appeared on the surface of Oxidation (1978), shown here, and the areas of corrosion changed color.

This presentation seeks to answer a deceptively simple question:

What happened? Museum conservators, with help from colleagues in the field and scientists, have been hard at work finding answers. The examination and analysis of the Oxidation paintings in the museum’s collection will contribute to proper stewardship, preservation, and treatment of the nearly 100 other works worldwide.

Several of the paintings on view are in his signature style, including portraits of famous (and less famous) people, and in one room, different skulls in various colors.

From the museum-

Warhol’s Skull paintings have often been considered memento mori, recalling the centuries-long tradition of art that reminds us of our mortality. Memento mori, from Latin, translates roughly to “remember that you are mortal” or “remember you will die.” Warhol’s own near-death experience happened in 1968, when troubled writer Valerie Solanas shot Warhol in the abdomen after claiming the artist had lost a script she had written. After reportedly being declared dead upon arrival at the hospital, Warhol’s life was saved during five hours of surgery. After nearly two months, he was released from the hospital but required further surgeries over the following years.

On one of the floors is The Archives Study Center. There, behind glass, are some of Warhol’s Time Capsules- boxes he filled with a wide variety of items, sealed and put into storage.

On the same floor is the Great Dane pictured above, Champion Ador Tipp  Topp (“Cecil”), who Warhol bought at an antique store after being told the dog had belonged to Cecil B. De Mille. The dog remained in Warhol’s office until his death.

A little more detail from the museum-

This mounted Great Dane, called Cecil by Warhol and his associates, was once a champion show dog. Born in Germany in 1921, original name was Ador Tipp Topp. Owned by Charles Ludwig, a top breeder, Cecil was sold to Gerdus H. Wynkoop of Long Island who entered the dog in several shows earning him the title of Champion by 1924, and Best of Breed at the Westminster Kennel Club.

After his death in 1930, Cecil’s remains were sent to Yale University in Connecticut, where they were mounted and displayed with 11 other breeds in what was known colloquially as “the dog hall of fame” at the Peabody Museum. However, by 1945, the canine display was removed to storage and forgotten.

In 1964 Scott Elliot, a Yale drama student, went to the Museum to find birds for a new play. He found the birds and also bought all 12 dog mounts for $10 each. When Elliot had to move a few months later, many of the mounts were left with a friend who put them in rented storage, which went unpaid and the contents were dispersed.

Warhol came across the display in an antique shop on 3rd Avenue several years later. He was told that the dog had belonged to film director Cecil B. DeMille. Warhol bought the story and the Great Dane for $300. Cecil found his final home at Andy’s office, where he was kept until Andy’s death in 1986.

Cecil’s current appearance differs from his championship form. His coat was originally black and white but exposure to sunlight has faded it to brown. Over the years, it sustained damage to the ears; they were repaired in April 1994 in anticipation of the opening of the Warhol Museum, to reflect the style of current breeds.

This is just a brief selection of what was on view. The museum collection also includes his early commercial paintings, some of his collaborations, television work, and more.

One of the great things about Andy Warhol is that no matter how much you know, there are always new things to learn. Even more than thirty years after his death, he remains as relevant as ever.

[ryanhamiltonwalsh]

The first Velvet Underground show in Boston - 10/29/66

In Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968 I devoted many pages in service of fleshing out just how important Boston was for VU in the late sixties. But what I didn't get to talk about was the very first time the band appeared in the city on 10/29/66, which happens to be 57 years ago this week. It's a fine excuse to briefly stop thinking about the ceaseless horrors of the larger world and collate/post a bunch of info I've collected about that show as well as their first show in Massachusetts all together in Provincetown a few months prior.

The Exploding Plastic Inevitable—Warhol's multimedia bombardment of lights, film, live music, performance, and dance—was less than a year old when it was scheduled to appear in Boston. This EPI, featuring the music of the Velvet Underground, was to serve as the culmination of Warhol's exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art (the ICA), which at this point was located at 100 Newbury Street (where H&M currently resides). This was only Warhol's second museum exhibition and the mere booking of it at the ICA led to robust conversation in local art cliques. Boston was titillated and ready to have strong opinions about the new pop sensation whom some were calling genius and others a charlatan. More on that in a bit.

But before that exhibit even opened, Massachusetts had gotten a preview of the full Warhol experience late that summer at the Chrysler Art Museum in Provincetown, the coastal resort town located at the very tip of Cape Cod.

The Chrysler Art Museum is the large white building in the background of this postcard on the right.

Since the late 1800's, Provincetown had been in contrast to much of Puritan-singed Massachusetts, welcoming artists and writers as residents and visitors, presenting experimental theater, and supporting thriving art colonies. In 1916, the Boston Globe wrote that Provincetown was 'the biggest art colony in the world.'" By the time the Warhol entourage rolled through, it was also quickly becoming known as a safe haven for LGBTQ folks as well. "There had been a gay presence in Provincetown as early as the start of the 20th century as the artists' colony developed, along with experimental theatre. Drag queens could be seen in performance as early as the 1940s in Provincetown." This, far more than Boston, was the kind of environment you'd imagine the Velvet Underground would be welcomed with open arms. But that's not how things panned out at all.

The Boston Globe previewed the event in late August:

By the time the EPI was set to come to Boston, the Globe preview of that booking (published 9/18/66) was far less dismissive; the write-up noted how the Exploding Plastic Inevitable grew out of Warhol's statements to the press that he had given up on painting (which was a terrific lie):

But back to Provincetown and the Velvets. Save for album opener "Sunday Morning," the debut VU album was already complete at this point, but would not be out until March of next year. Earlier in the summer, the band's first single had been released with Nico on lead vocals on both the A & B side. This no doubt frustrated Lou Reed if not all of the other Velvets. Warhol had convinced VU they needed a mysterious chanteusse in the mix, and they reluctantly, begrudgingly agreed to facilitate Nico's membership in the band while always simultaneously keeping her at arm's length (though both Reed and Cale also eventually both had affairs with her).

On the single version of "All Tomorrow's Parties," the six-minute prepared piano tour-de-force fades out after the 3 minute mark, undercutting its power substantially. The single did not chart. Reed claimed "All Tomorrow's Parties" was about the scene he witnessed at The Factory ("I would hear people say the most astonishing things, the craziest things, the funniest things, the saddest things," he explained) while Cale contends it's about a woman named Darryl they were both pursuing. In any event, it's highly unlikely anyone in Provincetown had heard the single before these performances but, factually, there *was* recorded VU music available out in the world at the time.

The complete EPI entourage in Provincetown featured all the Velvets—John Cale, Sterling Morrison. Nico, Lou Reed, and Maureen Tucker—Warhol himself, dancers Gerard Malanga, Mary Woronov, and Eric Emerson, road manager Faison, and Warhol assistants Paul Morrissey and Ronnie Cutrone. Relatively new to the group was Susan Bottomly (aka International Velvet) with David Croland, her boyfriend.

While it's certainly been mentioned that Susan Bottomly was from Boston (well, Wellesley, specifically), I haven't seen anyone chronicling the VU story or its primary players note that she was also the daughter of John Bottomly, who was not only the State Assistant Attorney General but also the chief of the special “Strangler Bureau," aka a key player in the infamous Boston Strangler saga.

International Velvet's father had never conducted a criminal investigation before heading up the bureau created in order to capture the phantom-like serial killer who had been terrorizing Boston for years, murdering over a dozen women. Bottomly was criticized for the interrogation methods he used on lead Strangler suspect Albert DeSalvo, guiding him directly towards certain ideas and details, for instance, and even more so when he became a paid consultant on the 1968 film The Boston Strangler. Between Bottomly's controversial Strangler hunt being recounted in Gerold Frank's best-selling '66 book, The Boston Strangler, and working on the Tony Curtis-starring-film of the same title, his daughter danced in the EPI, had flings with Lou Reed and John Cale, and appeared on the FEB '67 cover of Esquire sitting in a trash can. Being able to draw a direct line from the Boston Strangler case to the Velvet Underground is truly a hallucinatory, peak-1960's kind of footnote.

But according to Warhol, this was not how the Bottomlys actually felt about Susan's trashcan cover turn and current direction in life: "Her parents weren’t happy with her new ‘career’ - modeling in New York - and later on, when she was on the cover of Esquire, photographed in a garbage can (‘Today’s Girl, Finished at 18’), they were really upset... but they went on supporting her, and she went on supporting lots of her friends.”

Along with Nico, Bottomly was one of the few performers in Warhol's Chelsea Girls film that actually lived at the Chelsea Hotel. Bottomly also appears in the Andy Warhol 1966 film "The Velvet Underground and Tarot Cards" in which, over the course of 65 minutes, all members of the band get their tarot read (there's more on VU's unlikely interest in astrological signs and other occult topics in my book). The film is extremely difficult to screen, but here's a short silent clip featuring Susan.

"I'd be dying to go to bed with Susan Bottomly (International Velvet)," whom Lou was also fucking on the side," Cale wrote in his 2000 autobiography. "Unfortunately [Lou] caught me in bed with Susan and he threw us both out of the apartment." How much of this had already transpired by the time the New Yorkers landed at the curled edge of Cape Cod is unclear.

"Everyone is uptight for amphetamine," Gerard Malanga wrote upon the crew's first impressions of Provincetown and the lack of connections to a dealer in the area. "We're all waiting in front of the museum to go to the beach." Enjoying the beach might have been the last good thing to happen to the EPI team in Provincetown. For starters, apparently, the toilets in the house Warhol rented did not work and members of the entourage were "throwing shit out the window."

Next up, one of the EPI entourage stole various items from a local shop for the show, and the police arrived on stage during one of the performances. They "untied Eric Emerson from a post (which he was strapped to in preparation for being whipped by Mary Woronov) in order to retrieve some belts and whips that were stolen from a leather store." (Source: Up-tight)

Additionally, Gerard Malanga was running out of patience with how little control he had over any visual aspect of the EPI and having to compete for the literal spotlight with the Velvet Underground. In Provincetown, Susan Bottomly refused to dance where Malanga instructed her to and then, during "Heroin," she blocked the spotlight that provided him with any source of light to navigate the space. "I'm in total darkness. Mary is also in total darkness," he wrote in his diary. "Andy seems oblivious to the situation and to my personal feelings."

In a letter written to Warhol but never sent, Malanga griped about the Cape Cod performance: “I thought the Provincetown show got off to a rough but very good start, until you were so kind enough as to let Susan and everyone else not directly connected with the show to get involved with Mary and I on stage…You are slowly taking this away from me by allowing outside elements to interfere with my dance routines…From my vantage point on stage to have more than two dancers the show becomes a Mothers of Invention freak-out.”

Even worse, new dancer Eric Emerson tried to steal a priceless piece of art from the museum "just to see if he could get away with it" and negotiations to return the art without charges being pressed were only narrowly achieved.

Finally, to tie a bow on the cursed Provincetown engagement, the large photograph on the back of the debut VU album was taken during one of the Chrysler Museum performances, and that particular image led to a legal issue which severely affected the impact the first VU LP was able to have with the listening public. It all has to do with the head above the projection of Lou's head, both hovering above the band. That upside down man is would-be art thief and EPI dancer, Eric Emerson.

The best, succinct explanation of the debacle comes from Richie Unteberger's excellent White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground day-by-day book:

“Seeing how no one asked [Eric Emerson] about putting his picture on the jacket, he asked Verve for a lot of money,” Morrison later explains in M.C. Kostek and Phil Milstein’s critical Velvet Underground discography. “Verve got scared and airbrushed it out.”

As an immediate consequence, The Velvet Underground & Nico – which has only just entered distribution and the lowest levels of the charts – has to be pulled from stores while Verve/MGM alters the artwork. The delay effectively kills the record’s chances of rising up the charts – not that it goes very far, peaking at a lowly Number 171 on Billboard...When the album finally reappears, Emerson’s image has been airbrushed out, leaving a murky, yellow glow where his face once appeared. Even worse, some copies simply paste an ugly, black-and-white sticker with the album title and Warhol’s production credit over where Emerson’s face had been. There are no winners in this battle.

But how was the music? The Boston Globe's Ray Murphy covered the event and his specific references to the Velvet Underground sound more like how you might describe different shades on a painter's palette than an innovative rock band comprised of five unique individuals:

The performance ended when "all the fuses in the room blew out under the strain of all the projectors, amplifiers, and lights. The quiet made you dizzy."

"It was a wild affair and difficult to analyze," Murphy concluded.

"They got run out of Provincetown on a rail," Cutrone said in summary.

---

Less than two months later, the EPI/VU gang marched right back into Massachusetts for a rematch, this time in Boston proper.

Andy's appearance at the ICA in early October for the opening of his exhibit kicked off the Beantown version of Warhol-mania. The Globe reported:

Guess who this chic hangman was? That's right...

The Boston Globe spelled her last name incorrectly here, but other articles about her get it right.

Warhol, as he often did, just stood there and let people project their ideas onto him.

The paper declared Warhol "the hottest living art personality since Picasso and Dali." Then it was off to the races, with droves of Bostonians visiting to see what all the fuss was about, making it the most popular exhibit in the ICA's history.

Future Fletch novelist Gregory Mcdonald covered the phenomenon weeks into the exhibit for the Boston Globe. Mcdonald conjectured that it's not just people who love his art and hate his art, but also a third category of person who knows it's a fraud but finds it delightful that he's pulling one over on the sophisticated art world.

"His work has the limited future of a soup label," Mcdonald writes, unaware how wrong he'll eventually be proven, but then again, Warhol felt the same way. "My work has no future at all," he told the reporter, "I know that." Outside of a good caption joke about an older patron confused about whether she was at the supermarket or an art gallery, the Mcdonald piece concludes in what can only be described as the writer spiraling out trying to put the artist's ethos and its consequences into words:

"What are you currently reading exists this morning in 600,000 copies," he declares, "but by 2:30 this afternoon will not exist at all." And yet, here I am, reading those words and thinking about that same artist. No one saw what was coming.

The EPI event promptly sold out and an additional performance was added for 11PM on October 29th at the ICA. In the lead up to the show, the Velvet Underground are referred to in the press as a "cultural mafia," a preview of the event says the band will be "unleashed," and that "Boston has not seen anything like it." Admission was five dollars.

---

Just like the Provincetown trip, Boston had its own unique roster of ancillary players involved with the EPI and VU, and a few of them had some connection to a scene that was just starting to develop up on Fort Hill in Roxbury. The Mel Lyman Family, or Fort Hill Community, like Warhol, would soon receive reams of press coverage in an attempt to figure out who/what/why they precisely were. For now, Lyman and Co. had just acquired several dilapidated houses on Fort Ave. in the wake of Mel's initial audacious claims that he was God. Their alternative newspaper, Avatar, would start the following year in June of '67.

Ronna Page, who would dance in the EPI that night, had previously done a Warhol screen test and is the co-"star" of one of the most infamous scenes in Chelsea Girls in which an amphetamine fueled Ondine slaps her after she calls him a phony. It's a real, unscripted moment. It's also one of the most exploitive, squirmish moments in all of Warhol's work. Warhol said the unexpected violence made him uncomfortable and he had to leave the room while it was happening but Mary Woronov, in her memoir Swimming Underground, reported that privately the director said, "it's our best film yet. It's so beautiful."

The description of her screen test: "Ronna Page, lit only from the left, stares hard at the camera without blinking, until her eyes tear up halfway through the roll."

It was Page who introduced filmmaker Jonas Mekas to Mel Lyman at the Paradox Restaurant in New York, a connection that would lead to Lyman's first book, Autobiography of a World Saviour. It's unclear if she was ever a full time member of the Lyman family or just a friend on the periphery. In 1967, a member of the Fort Hill Community wrote of Page in the pages of Avatar:

The darkly voluptuous superstar, Ronna Page's metier is seducing swamis, and there's more and more work for her every day. Everyone's off to see the Master these days. The Beatles, Shirley MacClaine, Mrs. Frank Sinatra (that's Mia), Kandy Kane, Bobby Vinton are all looking for someone to help them on the journey to spiritual salvation. Can't you just see it! In a few years everyone will be going to their "psychia-christ" to the tune of seventy love — dollars an hour. But as long as our lovely Ronna is around, she'll weed out the swamis who are not bent on salvation but are bent over something else.

The subtext of this gossipy blind item is unknown, and whether this is in praise of Page or a dig is hard to say. In the 1966 "Expanded Arts" issue of Film Culture, Mel Lyman is listed as available for "A full evening show alone or together with Eben Given, Ronna Page, Jonas Mekas, light, images, voice, human presence" (Film Culture 43 [1966]: n.p.).

Also part of the Warhol entourage in Boston is artist and future art critic Rene Ricard, who was actively trying to avoid the Cambridge police for living illegally on Harvard property "and numerous flower thefts - from gardens, flower shops and particularly an alleged heist of one of Andy’s flower paintings."

In a November '67 article in Avatar, apparently Rene wrote an anonymously disparaging piece about himself:

A raging, high-pitched, red-eyed little transvestite called, get this, Rene Ricard, attacked Mel Lyman the other night in the back room (the place) of Max's Kansas City. Mel, slightly startled, but always the Master of the situation, just shut the little thing up by slapping his face. It turned out the reason for his attack was somehow everyone in New York thinks he's ME and he feels that I am ruining his name — YOUR name, you little bitch, think what you're doing to MINE!

Uh, ok. Sure. Maybe you had to be there.

Some of the NY entourage stay with Gordon Baldwin, others with Ed Hood, and because Nico only appears with the Velvet Underground a few times in Boston, this date is a fairly good candidate for one of the times the band stayed in the houses of the Mel Lyman Family. From AW68:

On one such occassion, when Nico simply helped herself to someone’s bed, the German singer was bluntly instructed to find somewhere else to catch some sleep. Personnel from the band and a Fort Hill Community member had certainly crossed paths at least once before; Faith Gude and VU’s whip dancer Gerard Malanga had a brief affair in the early sixties.

At 9PM, Saturday, October 29th, the first Velvet Underground show in Boston began.

Gerard Malanga sets the scene in Up-Tight:

In Jack Bernstein's review of the event for MIT's The Tech newspaper, he knew he had seen something ahead of its time:

To borrow a phrase, "it's the shape of rock to come." Andy Warhol's Expanding Plastic Inevitable featuring The Velvet Underground with Nico performed their new 'psychedelic rock' at the Institute of Contemporary Art Saturday. The biggest difference between this music and the stuff you get on 'frantic forty' radio is that you have to see this to believe it.

Bernstein describes the disorientating nature of the opening of the EPI with its lights, films, and a sense something was about to happen. And then:

Their first number, 'All Tomorrows Parties,' which, incidentally, has been released by Verve records, featured Nico singing, and the Underground, electric bass, electric guitar, electric piano, and supersonic drums, providing the most driving backing I've ever heard...the technical armament of Velvet Underground is something fantastic to behold...the most starling of all was two huge gas-discharge lamps which would flash in syncopated time as the music reached its climax. The only aspect of the performance which could been improved upon was the group's tendency to rely on the background material for too long between numbers, but once the music started, all was forgiven.

It sounds like an unadulterated win, but just like Provincetown, apparently, the New Yorkers left feeling down about the gig. EPI entourage member Susan Pile had a fairly grim assessment of how it all shook out in the end in a letter to her friend:

"Boston’s reaction was an incredible rejection. The thing is, those who do not get involved with the show tend to react in loud objection; those who do get involved are too overcome with the experience (capital E) to do much of anything. And the show in Boston was beautiful--it was a stage show in the auditorium - no dancing by scum on the floor."

But Pile also noted, "the Velvets are getting so much better--their album is done, but everyone is becoming disenchanted with the idea of touring." In truth, it wasn't quite done, and it was going to be awhile before it came out, and even then, it wasn't going to get the praise and adulation it deserved for decades, arguably. A long, long wait was ahead for the band, as an entity and even as a name. Think of the anticipation and crazed majesty of this first performance compared to the final Boston VU show, at Oliver's on Lansdowne St in 1973 with no original members and Doug Yule leading a competent bar band through a set that included some Velvet Underground songs. There would be a long free fall towards obscurity before they would be crowned one of the greatest to ever do it.

"One of the more celebrated rock groups..." indeed.

As would become tradition, the post-VU-Boston-show after party was held at Ed Hood's place in Harvard Square. Pile recalled, "A totally paranoid party - millions of people at Ed Hood’s in total isolation, everyone stoned beyond belief and uncommunicating."

The EPI in Boston generated an avalanche of stimuli, information, and discussion. Maybe everyone had done enough communicating for the night.

[graysquirrel7]

I could tell this would end badly, no matter what happened. I didn't need the smell of stale sweat from other victims that had soaked into the trunk lining to tell me that. And urine.

My eyes did not care that it was dark, I could see everything just fine. The trunk was mostly empty. There was a small gas can clipped into one side and a scissor jack on the other. I could smell the lingering mix of gasoline, oil, and road tar from both.

The man who had thrown me in this car's trunk had ill intent and a bodycount. It reminded me of the things my parents always lectured me about. The things that they had escaped from.

I couldn't help it, reading the thoughts and desires of the man. The powers I'm supposed to maintain control of, however, I could help.

At least, that's what my parents always said.

Truth is, I was scared. I could hear the engine accelerating, the wheels crunching on loose debris on concrete and asphalt surfaces. I could even hear my kidnapper cursing as he swerved around obstacles.

Yeah, probably nowhere near as scared as my kidnapper, but I was scared. And a kid.

I've always been fascinated with minute details. The tiniest of things that made a big deal in the long run. I had never tried to influence them before now.

Never had reason to disobey my parents on tapping into the instinctive, destructive powers our kind were known for.

There were books in the local library that I had been fascinated with. They showed what they called exploded diagrams of various mechanical objects. Showing every separate piece that formed the whole, the fasteners that joined everything together, and even labelled it all so that someone who was taking apart something like a pump or a motor would be able to put it all together.

I was not worried about that part.

I started with the handcuffs.

Well, I meant to start there. I was scared. I'm not sure what happened.

The sounds of everything stopped. The engine, the squeaking suspension, the tires on the road, even the cursing of the driver.

I felt light, like I was made of nothing but ephemeral energy.

The handcuffs had exploded into all of their distinct parts, the toothy curved locking bar--single strand, one of those books had called it--the links, the rivets, everything had been separated. Now they all floated in the air around me.

It wasn't just the handcuffs, though. I could see the bolts, nuts, pins, baseplate, and steel arms that had once been a functional scissor jack. Also floating in the air.

And the tail lights. Split out into their individual parts, no complex assembly intact.

The rest of the car was slowly peeling apart, rivets, screws, nuts and bolts, everything coming apart in a slow dance of floating metal and plastic.

I consider it a small mercy that my understanding of constructed things was not enough to deconstruct a man. So we floated together, trapped between ticks of a clock while his car simply became a cloud of floating parts.

There were two other things I could feel in that moment between moments.

One was my parents shedding their masquerade, miles away from me, as they rushed towards me. This was something new to me. I had never been able to sense them like this before.

The second was something far larger, far more distant, turning its eyes slowly, inevitably in this direction.

That is when I started to understand the difference between being a scared kid and genuine fear.

Then I was no longer a scared kid.

The cloud of parts remembered that it still answered to physics as time returned to normal, and scattered down the road, bouncing and skidding off the momentum that it had had only a blink beforehand.

I'll spare you the details about the kidnapper. Suffice to say, he will claim no more victims. Ever.

I was, however, still far too scared to actually return to my usual body. That was the genuine fear. Everything in my soul pulled at the shadows around me, trying to cloak me from those terrible, ancient eyes.

I felt my parents arrive, and almost immediately my mother was humming the song she used to use to lull me to sleep when I was smaller.

The song filled the space between my breaths and tears, pushing the fear out enough to where I could let go of those shadows. I could feel myself returning to physical form. The less ephemeral I was, the more distant those eyes felt.

Until finally, I was sitting in the road, cheeks wet with tears. I could no longer feel the eyes beyond the world. I was simply a scared kid again.

"You alright, kiddo?" My father ruffled my hair affectionately and sat down next to me. "If you don't mind being carried, I think it's time we got you home."

I nodded, my throat still too tight to form words. Home sounded good.

You were born into a family of demons who escaped hell to live a normal life under humans. Your parents told you never to use your demonic powers. That is until you’re kidnapped by a serial killer of your hometown who you decide to teach a lesson.

[mannymuc]

Nico and the Inevitable Andy Warhol

Extracted from a well-known promo photo for the "Exploding Plastic Inevitable" Velvet Underground show

[voiceoffreedom24]

Nanoplastics will cause up to 90% of the population to develop severe neurological disorders within a few generations

Egon Cholakian:Registered Federal Lobbyist, United States Senate. House of Representatives. The White House 

▪️ Registered Foreign Agent, United States Department of Justice / National Security Division 

▪️ National Security Expert | Representative: ALLATRA

Now, I will tell you something else—something you apparently don't know. You couldn't have foreseen it or calculated it due to your lack of information and professional competence. 

Nanoplastics are not merely pollutants—they are an anthropogenic factor that is already affecting our health and our future. Research shows that their accumulation in the human body is directly linked to the rising number of children born with autism. If we do nothing about this, in just a few generations, every second child in the world could be born with an autism spectrum disorder. This is not a forecast; it is the reality we must confront.

Micro- and nanoplastics disrupt the water balance, further heating the already dying ocean. As a result, the ocean, instead of producing oxygen, begins to emit CO₂. These emissions have already destabilized the water balance in the atmosphere, and this process will only intensify. The disruption of water exchange will inevitably lead to a breakdown in gas exchange, causing a gradual depletion of oxygen. This will trigger irreversible processes of human degradation.

Scientific evidence confirms a direct link between CO₂ concentration and developmental disorders. Oxygen deficiency and increased acidity in the body provoke neurodegenerative processes. The mechanism is quite simple: rising CO₂ levels directly affect cognitive abilities, effectively programming the degradation of humans as a biological species. Projections suggest that within just a few short generations, up to 90% of the entire population could suffer from severe neurological disorders.

This problem will have to be addressed—there is no escaping it. It concerns every person on this planet, it concerns our children and our grandchildren. A complete ban on plastic is currently unrealistic due to its widespread use in various aspects of our lives. The primary challenge is not to prohibit plastic entirely but to create an economically viable model for its disposal. Without this, the only "macroeconomic benefit" left will be the gradual degradation and extinction of humanity.

Now imagine adding a catastrophic eruption of the Siberian magma plume to everything else that is already happening—uncontrolled CO₂ saturation of the atmosphere, nanoplastic pollution, and natural disasters. Even if the plume doesn't explode instantaneously and instead erupts gradually, the consequences of releasing such a massive volume of lava will continue to grow and worsen.

Learn more here: Russia is abandoning Siberia

 on canal earthsavesciencecollaborative.com

climate report 'On The Progression Of Climatic Disasters On Earth And Their Catastrophic Consequences).

[harmcityherald]

see, I could never have handled success. when someone likes my stuff I could almost cry because that's all I've ever wanted from my art, someone to see me. if a million look in my direction I would have exploded on the spot. My brother and I, we have actually discussed this. I was the front man who didn't want to make it. wasn't the goal. so to my band members I was doing a disservice. I've apologized to a few. sorry I held us back putting art above subsistence. My fault for being the artist, your fault for following me into the fire. I was self destructive. part of my performance art was my undoing in public. the unwinding of my madness for barroom introspection, the more blood and sweat I could give the better the show. it is not out of character for me to turn my inevitable death into performance art. all of my injuries and traumas have been on display since the beginning. my school days are a testament to torture, I was the running show on display for all to see and throw apples at. so I've always learned to enjoy my outcast status. to embody it. I wear my bloody injuries around my head like a crown. a crown of blood and shit and death so you know its arrived when I kiss you goodbye. so I will use film and digital recording and I will meet death laughing live on simian planet tv. laughing at death because I never let the darkness into my eyes. laughing so that they hear me coming from the other side and know that ranxid finally walks the underworld and all should clear a path and avert their eyes as I pass unbothered and laughing. oh if only we could film that. me receiving my karma. I don't fear anyone seeing my crimes. or me paying the price. I was a pinnacle of evil, my reputation always preceded me. I would scare the little art student rebels in their black plastic faux goth gear. they were playing games with their parents. such a show until you find real. real is scary isn't it, precious. yes, I had that dark cloud. but for want of all trying, I could never truly be evil. it was something always in the room with me but never truly embodied. so yes, I would let the world, all of mundane humanity, peer into my scene at the weighing of my heart. I already know I am much more substantial than the feather. voices of people I can not hear and I give no credence to their eyes upon me. I was an artist. I lived for you. now I die for you. see me. finally see me. then I can go.

daffy duck in red. I can only do this trick once. gather round children.

°strikes a match°

[immersiveart]

Immersive art experiences research

- Muhammed fayas

Immersive art experiences

the main focus during my research was to find examples of immersive art experiences that extended beyond just the visuals of the space and instead transforming the entire space available as part of the art installation, taking advantage of the multiple senses. I wanted to understand their strengths and weaknesses in order to apply key learnings in our own project.

The weather project - Olafur Elisason. 

An artificial sun created by Olafur, enhanced by smoke and reflective mirrors on the ceiling. One of the most popular immersive art experiences of all time. 

Strengths

Manages to create a dream like environment, feeling of an alternate reality. 

Puts the onus on the participant to extract meaning, open for interpretation. Keeping them mentally stimulated. 

While it's open for interpretation, the subject matter being simple also means that the participant is not visually overstimulated to engage meaningfully with the subject matter. 

The fog, the sun and the mirrors takes advantage of multiple senses creating a high degree of engagement. 

The space for the participants to wander and relax ensures that there is a freedom and a level of physical interaction involved with the artwork. 

Weaknesses

The loose nature of the subject matter might not interest everyone. 

2. Ecocide and rise of freefall - Marzia farhana

Objects that were salvaged from the kerala floods in 2018, suspended from the ceiling. 

Strengths

Connected to real life events, making it relatable for the participant thereby creating a higher degree of engagement as well as educating those that are not aware.

Invokes a narrative that is easy to understand.

Physicality of the objects make sure that the experience does not remain abstract but rather very real.

Weaknesses

Could be perceived as taking advantage of a tragedy to create a show. 

Taking advantage of only the sight and spatial aspect of the immersive experience. 

3. Exploding Plastic Inevitable - Andy Warhol

A mixture of live music, multimedia and performance art created by andy warhol and the velvet underground. Including films, poetry, dancing, stroboscopes and projections. 

Strengths

Stimulating. The mixture of different artforms meant that this experience would grip the participants attention. 

Social commentary. It takes on plastic and the rise of capitalism, predicting a future that is noisy and overstimulating. An explosion of stimulation. 

The combination of live music and visuals adds a new layer for the performance. Transporting the participant to an alternate space. 

Weaknesses

While it is visually and sonically heavy, it does not take advantage of all the levels of senses that it could. 

The social commentary conveyed through the excess performance and visuals can come across as very indulgent.

Key takeaways

Great immersive art experiences have a philosophy behind it, a narrative that it tries to guide the viewer to. Having this narrative that is understandable to the participant makes sure that there is a level of engagement with the subject without the participant becoming disinterested. The key here being to keep the narrative simple but with depth which then the participant is given time to get to themselves while being in the art space. 

It is also important to keep in mind the different senses that you are able to take advantage of beyond just the visuals. Touch, smell, the space and atmosphere all can be played with to provide a complete experience. Do not be afraid to experiment with these along with the visuals.

It is important to balance simplicity and Avant Garde elements in order to make sure the audience is not overstimulated and thus shutting themselves off the experience. Sometimes the simplest of visuals can be the most profound.

Citations

Eliasson, O. (2003) The Weather Project. Available at: https://olafureliasson.net/artwork/the-weather-project-2003

Artlead (n.d.) Modern classics: Olafur Eliasson – The Weather Project (2003). Available at: https://artlead.net/journal/modern-classics-olafur-eliasson-the-weather-project-2003/

e-flux (n.d.) 4th Kochi-Muziris Biennale: Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life. Available at: https://www.e-flux.com/criticism/250382/4th-kochi-muziris-biennale-possibilities-for-a-non-alienated-life

Singh, S. (2019) Notes on Kochi & Katowice. The Avery Review, (38). Available at: https://averyreview.com/issues/38/notes-on-kochi-katowice

Mind Smoke Records (n.d.) 1966: Andy Warhol’s Plastic Exploding Inevitable. Available at: https://msmokemusic.com/blogs/mind-smoke-blog/posts/6563673/1966-any-warhol-s-plastic-exploding-inevitable

[ericaschreiner]

I’ll Be Your Mirror

Saturday 21 October, 7-10.15pm, Dublin

We are delighted to welcome you to I’ll Be Your Mirror curated by Pádraic E. Moore, a special evening  conceived as a collage of performance, spoken word, screenings and live music.

The first chapter of this exciting two–part series of nocturnal events includes contributions by Erica Schreiner, author Nicole Flattery reading from her book Nothing Special,  Ronan McCreaand a live performance by OJAI (Office for Joint Administrative Intelligence). 

The evening includes an interval wine reception.

Tickets: €18, advance booking essential via Eventbrite.

I’ll Be Your Mirror consists of two complementary chapters, each combining spoken word, screenings and performances. Bringing together contributions from local and international artists, these nocturnal events highlight the inescapable allure of Warhol’s legacy. While some of the contributors address Warhol directly, others explore themes that resonate with it; consumption, celebrity, sexuality, identity, mechanical reproduction, analogue technology. selfhood and the emancipation of repressed desire via the photographic image.

Part I (October 21st) begins with an in-person introduction by Erica Schreiner to three shorts that she made on VHS.  A preoccupation with analogue technology also informs the work of

Ronan McCrea  who will share reflections (both literal and physical) on an ongoing body of work entitled Study for Projection Series. Following this, Nicole Flattery reads excerpts from Nothing Special; her 2022 novel featuring a  protagonist who works as a typist in The Factory. After an interlude for refreshments the Office for Joint Administrative Intelligence(Chris Dreier and Gary Farrelly ) will present a new performance exploring bureaucratic, architectonic, and ritualistic approaches to hero-making.

The title of this project is taken from a song by Nico and the Velvet Underground featured on their eponymous debut album released in 1967. The LP was recorded the year before its release when the band were still managed by Warhol and headlining the multimedia performance art show known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. The title of this event evokes both the persona and oeuvre of Warhol who is frequently described as a “mirror of his age.”

I’ll Be Your Mirror is curated by Pádraic E. Moore

*Please note that the I’ll Be Your Mirror evening is approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes in length. This time includes an interval of approx. 20 minutes during which refreshments will be served. While the full exhibition is not open during the evening event, Warhol films which are on display in gallery one are accessible for the duration.

Image: Andy Warhol, ‘Nico in Kitchen’, 1966.  16 mm film, black and white, sound, 33 mins. Copyright The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburg, PA a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Film sill courtesy The Andy Warhol Museum

[de-salva]

CAM FORRESTER - 'A Symphony Of Sound' by The Velvet Underground (part 2)

"Multi-instrumental artist CAM FORRESTER performs an authentic interpretation of a 1966 rehearsal by The Velvet Underground entitled 'A Symphony Of Sound'. The band originally performed the improvised jam (which lasted almost an hour) in June 1966, at Andy Warhol’s studio, ‘The Factory’, in New York. The rehearsal was filmed by Warhol himself, using several experimental filming techniques (most notably erratic panning and fast in-and-out zooming) and was one of the many films he made that would be used for projections in the subsequent 'Exploding Plastic Inevitable' multi-media shows. This cover version is based on the audio of the film, and is essentially a highlight-compilation of the interesting musical ideas exhibited by the band during the session".

* This recording contains a sample of a viola solo performed by John Cale (accompanied by Maureen Tucker), which was sourced from an audio excerpt of the film 'The Velvet Underground and Nico' (a.k.a. A Symphony Of Sound) by Andy Warhol © 1966 The Museum Of Modern Art Film Library.