The 1910 autochrome of medieval cosplayers, cropped above, and the monkey-on-a-rhino gelatin print below are in a set of early 20th century photographs from The George Eastman House, which has joined the flickr commons. I spotted this on photographer Raul Gutierrez' blog (a regular source of joy for me), and there he wrote:

Flickr Commons is a fantastic idea. My wish is that the whole thing could be taken further. Imagine an open source version of flickr dedicated to showing artwork and photography from public institutions in which users had the opportunity to contribute scholarly work or to group images into collections.

George Eastman House's photostream [Flickr]

I also loved this photo of Egyptian women in beautiful dresses; a woman in a fur throw with a corsage, and this stunning, simple portrait.

On her Tokyomango blog, Lisa Katayama profiled two fascinating Japanese artists I'd never heard of: Yayoi Kusama (L) and Mariko Mori (R).

Kusama lives in a mental hospital near her studio in Tokyo because psychiatrists don't understand how her complex brain functions (she's obviously a genius). She turns 80 next year, but that hasn't stopped her momentum of obsessive, repetitive dot-drawing. Dot dot dot dot dot. That's what she sees, so that's what she draws. Abused as a child, suicidal as a teen, and plagued with OCD for the ensuing half century and beyond, she has often claimed that her objective in life is to obliterate herself and her world through art. The dots, Kusama has said, symbolize disease: she often covers herself in them, and when that's not enough, she covers museum walls, random objects, and public statues in them as well. Of course, her art is so famous and cool that nobody objects. Walking into a Kusama-dotted room really feels like walking into an alternate universe.

Mori isn't afraid to combine aliens with Buddhas or to experiment with materials and concepts normally unheard of in the art world. She spent part of her thirties voyaging to historic sites across the world in a time-traveling alien pod. When she got back, she created the Wave UFO, a giant teardrop-shaped spaceship that shows visitors their brainwaves as projections on the wall while they sit in Technogel lounge chairs. "The past, present, and future exist in harmony in her work," says Stover. "It represents the space-ageyness of Japan."

Futurist Japanese Artists Show Us Life in the Next Century (Tokyomango)

Phil Torrone, whose work you may know from MAKE magazine, shares his latest online video project with us -- it looks pretty awesome! Hats off! He explains.

Citizen Engineer is an online video series about open source hardware, electronics, art and hacking. The first video debuted at "The Last HOPE" conference today in New York City. Volume 1is about phones: SIM card & payphone hacking. Learn how a SIM card works (the small card inside GSM cell phones) make a SIM card reader, view deleted messages, phone book entries and clone/crack a SIM card. Modify a "retired" payphone so it can be used as a home telephone and for VoIP (Skype). Then learn how to modify the hacked payphone so it accepts quarters - and lastly, use a Redbox to make "free phone" calls from the modified coin-accepting payphone.

Savanna Snow says:

This Friday July 18th M Modern Gallery will be curating an epic show entitled Crimes on Canvas. This group exhibition takes place within the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Grand Ballroom and is part of the 944 magazine 3rd anniversary party.

The show will feature new sculpture and paintings by some of the east and west coasts' finest artists, including: Andrew Brandou, Tim Biskup, Glenn Barr, SAS Christian, Bob Dob, Pizz Chris Mars, Amy Crehore, David Stoupakis, Travis Louie, Shag, Amanda Visell (shown above), Ron English and many more.

Crimes on Canvas runs through July 19th. See a show preview, or visit M Modern Gallery for more information.

Tor Books is raffling off this gorgeous Asus Mini laptop that's been hand-painted by famed science-fictional artist Donato: all you need to do to win is sign up to get word when the awesome (yes, I've seen it) tor.com website launches:

As a promo for Tor.com, we asked Donato to paint an Asus mini computer which you, yes you, can win! To sign-up, go to Tor.com.

The first time I watched this I realized what makes Donato Donato. There's a point about third of the way through where I thought he was done....and then he keeps painting.

The computer is in my office and is supposed to be on display at ComicCon. It's been hard to bat co-workers away from it. Should it go missing, my list of suspects is long.

Link (Thanks, Patrick!)

Cory visits his favorite comic book store in all the world -- Secret Headquarters, in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles. With shop owner Dave Pifer, he walks us through some of the graphic novels and comics he loves, everything from manga to zine howto manuals to Jodorowsky to Warren Ellis. Cory is particularly fond (as are all of us at BBtv) of the shop's awesome simultaneous tribute to Stan Lee and the Sex Pistols in this t-shirt, "God Save Stan Lee."

Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion, downloadable video, and instructions on how to subscribe to the BBtv video podcast.

Michael Mararian has a new show of his macabre, mischievous, and darkly comedic Inky Dreadfuls opening this Saturday, July 19, at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, CA. The exhibition, titled "Phobia, Foibles & Fiends," runs until August 9. (Also showing are Tiffany Liu and Krista Huot.) Mararian doesn't just use magic markers. He is one. From the show description:

Featuring over thirty macabre ink renderings, his new body of work is a dark comedy of psychological fears, character flaws and complexes of the human id. Using black India ink, archival brush pens and rapidographs, Mararian continues to create narratives that transform traditionally cheerful images and concepts into frightening yet humorous tableaus.

M. Mararian's Inky Dreadfuls, Corey Helford Gallery,

The incredible Shawn Wolfe, who illustrated for bOING bOING and The Happy Mutant Handbook, has an exhibition at Wall of Sound in Seattle that opens this Friday.

Recent works by artist and designer Shawn Wolfe (that's me). Nauseously Optimistic features painted, photographic and sculptural works that sometimes evoke the artist's pre-millennial pre-catastrophe "Panic Now" campaign. Graphic creations take the form of rough-hewn signage drawing on the imagery and the daft/deft language of a mass-produced culture of crisis.

Show runs through August 30th.

Opening Reception
Friday, July 18 2008 (tomorrow)
7PM - 9PM

Wall of Sound
315 East Pine Street
Seattle, WA
tel. (206) 441-9880
wosound@questoffice.net

Today on Boing Boing tv, a music video for the Pinker Tones song "S.E.X.Y. R.O.B.O.T." produced by Bill Barminski's "Walter Robot" studio. The whole album ("Wild Animals") is great: Amazon link, iTunes.

Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion, downloadable video, and instructions on how to subscribe to the BBtv video podcast.

Previous BBtv episodes featuring Walter Robot Studios and Bill Barminski:

Bill Barminski animation: "Drive-In"

Mark makes a mini amp / Funky cowboy (BBtv's 50th!)

Roachbot / Walter Robot

Ethan Persoff says,

A new game of Poodle (about the game) is live on COMICS WITH PROBLEMS, this time using the New Yorker cover as the game ball.

Goal is to see if it's possible, through poodle method, to make a universally offensive cover out of this wishy washy half-satire that no one can seem to agree upon.

POODLE SAMIZDAT: SPECIAL NEW YORKER EDITION [ Comics With Problems ]

Amy Crehore has posted scans of her new delightfully mysterious paintings, titled "The Caged Wonder," (shown here), "Black Ball Finale," and "French Bubble Gum Encore."

3 New Crehore Paintings Revealed (Little Hokum Rag)

This marvellous paperback chair is on display at Myopic Books in Providence Rhode Island (where the Rag and Bone blog's proprietor spotted it). It was made by artist David Karoff: "David Karoff welded the chair and attached the paperbacks: they have holes drilled though their insides and are slipped onto a hidden rebar frame. All of the materials are recycled - even the books, which are cast-offs from the Rochambeau Library Book Sales." ZOMG I wish this was for sale. Link (via Make)

Sara Hillenberger's knitted woolen organs have a cashmeresque delicacy that makes them almost yummy-seeming. If all organs looked like this, organ-meat would make the jump from dog-food to mainstream delicacy. Link (via Craft!)

Spurred by my post yesterday about the surreal bird formation video, filmmaker Bob Jaroc pointed me to this captivating music video he made in 2006 for the electronica group Plaid. Bob says, they're "real birds, shot in Brighton, England over a year or so then sequenced." The video is from Greedy Baby, a CD/DVD combination with Plaid's music and Jaroc's videos. Plaid/Jaroc bird video

Previously on BB:
• Video: surreal bird formation

Artists Mark Ryden and Marion Peck, the dynamic duo of pop surrealism, made this dark, sweet, and strange short film Sweet Wishes. It's about a dolly, a baby, and a bear who are granted a wish. Peck and Ryden are also publishing a picture book based on the film. Sweet Wishes (Hi-Fructose)

Our pals at Gama-Go are making 50 of these giant wooden Deathbot statues. They're 30 inches tall and sell for $350 including shipping. I am anxiously awaiting arrival of my new Deathbot overlord! And for those seeking an even more intense Deathbot experience, an armor-plated version is also available as part of Gama-Go's new Store Fund Club. To raise money to open a store, GAMA-GO is offering four tiers of membership support where you pay $80 to $5000 in exchange for a 10% to 40% discount and a limited edition creation, from a signed print to metal designer toys. (The giant armored Deatbot is part of the top-tier offering, 'natch.) Membership program sign-up ends July 31.
Gama-Go Store Membership (Gama-Go)

Previously on BB:
• New Boing Boing t-shirt by GAMA-GO!

I was thinking aloud on Twitter earlier today that the world needs -- ok, ok, *I* needed a new and specific thankyou card, not so much to thank someone for doing something nice, but to thank someone for having not done something not nice when being a jerk would have been an easy option. THANK YOU FOR NOT DOUCHING OUT, the card would read, and I imagined it in a maudlin font with a fat-ass flower right in the middle.

JimB. aka Brons on Twitter, heard the call and came to the P-shop rescue. JimB: a non-ironic thank you, sir. BB audience, feel free to use this as appropriate in your own lives.

Joi Ito points us to a new video just released by Radiohead for the song "House of Cards" from the album In Rainbows. Snip from a blog post at the Google Developer site, which has videos and images about the making of...

No cameras or lights were used. Instead two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.

And Joi, who is the CEO of Creative Commons, adds...

Exciting for Creative Commons is that the data (although not the music) used to produce this music video are being made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License on the Google Code site. The Source code to the software used is being made available under a Apache License 2.0. This combination of Open Source licenses for code and Creative Commons licenses for data/content is very "good idea".

Radiohead "House of Cards" and Creative Commons [ joi.ito.com ]

RA DIOHEA_D / HOU SE OF_C ARDS [ Google Code ]

(Disclaimer: the writer of this post is the hugest Radiohead fan ever, and will personally whup all comers who may hit me up on my Myspace to dispute said claim. Aight? Later.)

Susan Rudat regularly scans her warm, textured, dimensional pen-and-ink sketches to her Flickr site. Link (via 'skine.art.)

Kevin Kelly blogs about the Phaistos Disc, an archeological object some believe is the oldest historic example of moveable type -- the concept, of course, not the blogging platform. Snip:

The characters on the clay disc were stamped from a set of "seals" creating a text written in a spiral, although neither the text nor the language of the text has been deciphered.

(...) On my shelf I have a small bronze replica of this object simply because it is a beautiful mandala. The fired-clay Disc which it replicates was discovered in 1908. However this week a specialist in faked ancient art claims that the original object is ...well... faked ancient art. In other words that the Phaistos Disc is a hoax. In addition to this expert's technical reasons you can add two others: no other example of the writing has been found, and even the shape and format of the object is unique.

Is the "First Movable Type" a Hoax? [ The Technium ]

Inspired by Brendan Dawes' 2004 project Cinema Redux which "distills a whole film down to one single image", tshirtblogger Jason Cosper used the shareware Thumber app to crank out a similar image for The Big Lebowski. I'd love to have a large-size print of this on my wall. Oh, hey you guys, feel free to litter the comments with Lebowski quotes -- for the Boing abides.

Cinema Redux - The Big Lebowski Edition [ Flickr ]

Previously: Video: He-Man versus the Big Lebowski

Mousewrites sez, "Steampunkwallpaper.com is a collection of wallpapers with a steampunky theme. I've taken it into my damn fool head to make one wallpaper a day for the next year, (15 so far) and I realized that I don't have quite enough ideas (my list of ideas is around 130 right now). I know that there's some people that don't like steampunk, but hell, there's some people who don't like coffee, either. No accounting for taste, I suppose! I love Boing Boing, and was hoping that the collective might give me some ideas? All my wallpapers are Creative Commons remix licensed, as well." Link (Thanks, Mousewrites!)

Etienne Meneau's "Strange Carafes" are pricey, hand-blown art-glass wine-decanters in the form of roots, or upside-down antlers. Pretty awesome -- though I'm fairly certain I'd turn mine into deadly shards (natural clumsiness) within minutes. Link (via Neatorama)

Seattle's incredible Roq La Rue Gallery is celebrating its tenth anniversary with an extravaganza of Pop Surrealism. The 10th Anniversary Group show opens tomorrow and it will spank your eyeballs. Featured artists include: Mark Ryden, Marion Peck, Femke Hiemstra, Brian Despain, Travis Louie, Scott Musgrove, Lisa Petrucci, Shag, Liz McGrath, Andrew Hem, Glenn Barr, John Brophy, Viktor Safonkin, Anthony Pontius, Tin, Kay Tuttle, Ronald Kurniawan, Chris Crites, Johnny Bergeron, Mia Araujo, Mike Leavitt, Christian Vanminnen, Gabe Marquez, and Lori Earley. (At top, Ryan Heshka's "Humants" (detail); above left, Mark Ryden's "Turkey Baby," above right, Liz McGrath and Morgan Slade's "Death Before Dishonor" sculpture; below Scott Musgrove's ""Great Lesser Plant Sampler- Extinct ca. 1877.") Congratulations, Kirsten Anderson!!! From the show description:

Roq la Rue is ten years old!

The gallery opened with a small gallery space in Belltown in the summer of 1998. Owner Kirsten Anderson had no previous gallery experience, but felt compelled to create a space where countercultural art could be seen and enjoyed in Seattle. At that time, there were only about 5 galleries in the world catering to a subversive new art movement tongue-in-cheekly called "Lowbrow", while ten years later there are almost too many to count, with a "Lowbrow/Pop Surrealist" gallery in almost every major city in the US and many major european cities. Since then, the gallery has hosted some of the world's most well known and regarded underground cartoonists and Pop Surrealists and is considered one of the top galleries world wide for the Pop Surrealism/ New Contemporary genre. (The "Lowbrow" moniker has since morphed into the term "Pop Surrealism" after the publication and success of the book "Pop Surrealism" published in 2004 by Last Gasp Books (selling 20,000 copies at last count) that Anderson compiled and edited.) In addition to hosting approximately 110 openings, the gallery has moved four times over the past decade, finally ending at it's largest and most posh digs yet in the Belltown neighborhood.

For our anniversary exhibition we asked a host of artists artists to participate. Some are old favorites, some are vibrant new talents the gallery is thrilled to have brought on board. All share the technical excellence and rapacious imagination that characterizes the artistic vision Roq La Rue has striven to promote over the past decade.

Online preview of Roq La Rue 10th Anniversary Show

Austrian subversive art collective monochrom present an all-new installment of the philosophical sock puppets Kiki and Bubu on today's episode of Boing Boing tv.

These fuzzy logicians ponder the true nature of individual identity in capitalist societies, and connect the dots between Star Trek fandom, Sesame Street characters, Broadway musicals, and racy jpegs.

Link to Boing Boing tv episode with discussion, downloadable video, and instructions on how to subscribe to the daily BBtv video podcast.

Previously:

* Nazi Petting Zoo
* Fisch Interview
* Orwell's 1984 deconstructed by puppets
* Monochrom's Marxist sock puppets
* Monochrom: MyFaceSpace, the musical
* Monochrom: Campfire at Will
* Monochrom: Falco Stairs
* Monochrom: Bar code artist Scott Blake / Falco stencil memorial
* Human USB Hack / Very Simple Motor
* Mark's Curie Engine / Monochrom's love song for Lessig

Via Cartoon Brew, word of a cool new show at New York's Children’s Museum of Manhattan -- “Golden Legacy: Original Art from 65 Years of Golden Book”. Snip from the show description:

Among the artists who contributed to the series were greats of the European émigré community such as Garth Williams, Feodor Rojankovsky, and Tibor Gergely who had gathered in New York as the situation in Europe worsened during World War II; alumni of the Walt Disney Studios such as Gustaf Tenggren, Martin Provensen, J. P. Miller, and Mary Blair; and American aritsts Leonard Weisgard, Eloise Wilkin, Elizabeth Orton Jones, Richard Scarry, and Hilary Knight.

Golden Legacy: Original Art from 65 Years of Golden Books, through August 28, at CMOM, 212 West 83rd Street, NYC. Image: work from the artist Mary Blair, whose illustrations for Golden Books will be featured in this show. [ Thank you, John Walsh! ]

UPDATE: Wow, awesome, this exhibit will be presented in a number of US cities, not just NYC! Tour info. [ Thanks, Mark Rowan ]

Randi sez, "Perhaps you would be interested in a 17 foot tall Gandhi avatar made out of cardboard? An artist by the name of Joseph DeLappe made this for his Eyebeam spring residency. Should you want to make your own, the process is well documented on Instructables."

After walking with Gandhi in Second Life for 240 miles I decided it would be interesting to extract my avatar from this online world and recreate him in monumental scale. This instructable takes you through the process of creating the 17' tall cardboard Gandhi using a variety of readily accessible (mostly free!) software tools, cardboard and a hot glue gun. The production of this sculpture took a total of 4 weeks, 6 days a week, 9-11 hour days with the assistance of an intern for two-three days of each week.

Link (Thanks, Randy!)

The History of the Psychedelic Movement is a cartoon and coloring book published in 1967 by Timothy Leary, Art Kleps, and friends at their infamous Milbrook, New York estate. A rare copy is currently up for auction on eBay with a BuyItNow price of $750. From the item description:

I purchased this from an officer that worked in the Poughkeepsie Township police department. He obtained it from the Dutchess county S.O. before they burned several hundred copies that had been confiscated from the Millbrook Estate raid.

Very few copies of this book are in existance. Art Kleps himself didn't have a clean copy. I will also include and email of a correspondence between the cop and Art Kleps in 1996. Kleps also stated that the remainder of the inventory was lost in Vermont.

Timothy Leary coloring book (eBay)

My favorite art magazine, Hi-Fructose, is curating a group art show opening this Saturday, July 12, at Santa Monica's Copro Nason Gallery. The exhibition celebrates the magazine's third anniversary. The list of artists included in the show is astounding. Above, Xiaoqing Ding's "Clouds and Rain" (one of six panels, 8" x 10" each). (Also showing in the gallery is Camilla d'Errico!)

Hi-Fructose featured artists: Amy Sol, Anthony Ausgang, Attaboy, Brian McCarty, Boomer, Brian Viveros, Chris Peters, Christopher Ryniak, Christian van Minnen, Dan Quintana, Daniel Lim, Dan May, Dave Cooper, David Stoupakis, Erik Alos, Esao Andrews, Germs, Gris Grimly, Jeff Gillette, Jeff McMillan, Jeff Soto, Jim Woodring, Josh Keyes, Keith Weesner, KMNDZ, Kukula, Lola, Luke Chueh, Makiko Sugawa, Mark Covell, Martin Witfooth, Matt Dangler, Michael Page, Michelle Mia Araujo, Naoto Hattori, Nathan Spoor, Laurie Lipton, Noferin, Oksana Badrak, Ray Caesar, Shag, Scott Belcastro, Stella Im Hultberg, Tin, Travis Louie, Winston Smith, Xiaoqing Ding, Yoskay Yamamoto.

Hi-Fructose group show Sneak Peak! (Hi-Fructose), Copro Nason 's Hi-Fructose Group Show preview (Copro Nason)