In 1986 Peter had the idea of growing a chair. Nine years later Peter and Becky became partners. Pooktre was born. Together they have mastered the art they call Pooktre, which is the shaping of trees as they grow in predetermined designs. Some are intended for harvest to be high quality indoor furniture and others will remain living art.

See More: Pooktre

(via Grinding)

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The Kaibo Zonshinzu anatomy scrolls, painted in 1819 by Kyoto-area physician Yasukazu Minagaki (1784-1825), consist of beautifully realistic, if not gruesome, depictions of scientific human dissection.

Unlike European anatomical drawings of the time, which tended to depict the corpse as a living thing devoid of pain (and often in some sort of Greek pose), these realistic illustrations show blood and other fluids leaking from subjects with ghastly facial expressions.

Full Story and More Illustrations: Pink Tentacle

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Anatomical Theatre: Depictions of the Body, Disease, and Death in Medical Museums of the Western World. Head on over, then click on Gallery. Probably NSFW. Thanks, Kara! x

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I interviewed Satoshi Sakamoto for the newly (re)launched R/evolutionary XChange shop:

R6XX：You call your work “surnaturalism.” What does that mean to you?

Satoshi: 　I have been calling my work “surnaturalism” consistently since I was 23. I use “sur” to differentiate between supernatural and surrealism. Also the name “surnaturalism” suggest its roots in surrealism. The surrealistic melting clock invented by Dali is senseless for a person who has never seen a clock. Surnaturalism includes nameless things of nuances of colors and forms. It is similar to music. Ultimate surnaturalism should be understandable even for the beings of other planets.

Full Story: R/evolutionary XChange.

Be sure to check out Satoshi’s prints!

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Many many more: Popped Culture.

(Bill Whitcomb sent me this, watch out for his pop culture tarot essay in Immanion Press’s forthcoming pop culture magic anthology, and the revised and expanded edition of his book The Magician’s Reflection)

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I’ve been studying Reiki under two local Reiki masters here, and it’s been good so far. I’ll write more about it once I’ve progressed farther. I’ve completed my Level I and some friends and I begin Level II in a couple weeks. I’ll be studying straight through the year until the Master class.

The teachers aren’t your traditional New Age fruits. They’re more like existential yogis, but the Reiki they practise is phenomenal. As an added bonus, they begin sessions with a Kirlian camera. Now, don’t read too much into these. But interesting to see the results as I progress through sessions with them and my own studies.

The image (click image for larger size) is mirrored, so the pinky finger is associated with your connection to one’s intuition, the ring finger with one’s emotional state, middle finger with one’s physical state, and index finger with one’s mental state.

The first row of finger tips is captured as they have you in your normal state, then they ask you to embody happiness, then frustration, and then to feel as if you’re the most comfortable state with yourself as possible. They capture these four sets onto one film and voilà!

The broken lines represent a lack of connection or awareness of that aspect of your being. Beyond language and labels, just being. And as the rings grow in brightness, I believe they come to represent one’s comfort with just being a part of existence — letting the whole of the life experience wash over oneself.

I went today, and as you can see from the bottom-right image, my way of living is beginning to more wholly encompass all facets of being. It was a good session and the past year’s been good.

Might be worth looking into for those unaware of Reiki. As Saul Williams says in his song "Raised to Be Lowered":

To find the balance between all you sense and all you see
To find the patience and the strength it takes to let it be
To stand amongst the crowd and have the strength to hold your own
To throw away the pen and pad and simply be the poem
To rise above hatred to love through seeming contradiction
To seldom take a side and learn to compliment the friction.

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This collection of 3d Sidewalk Art is mostly the creation of English chalk artist Julian Beever. The art, when viewed at the correct angle gives an awesome 3d illusion.

(via Optical Illusions)

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“In the natural world, the chameleon blends in perfectly with its background. In the urban jungle, Desiree Palmen decided to attempt the same visual deception. And as these pictures show, the effect is amazing. Miss Palmen, a 44-year-old Dutch artist, uses a method that requires a huge amount of effort and attention to detail.

She makes cotton suits and paints the camouflage on by hand, painstakingly matching it to the chosen background. Either she or a model then poses in the suit in the chosen place. The scenes are photographed and filmed and then put on display. “People always react strongly when they see my work,” she said. “They have mixed reactions: confusion, surprise and interest.”

[…] She got the idea for her unusual art from the increasing use of “Big Brother” surveillance. She said: “I’d like people to consider what it means to let the government control our daily lives. “When we are controlled we hand over our individual responsibilities to the state. I wanted to make a suit for the non-criminal citizen whose house is being watched 24 hours by street surveillance cameras. I’m also responding to a wish to disappear.”

(via Daily Mail)

(Desiree Palmen’s website)

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More pics.

(via Posthuman Blues).

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Several images.

Wikipedia entry.

(Thanks Beef!)

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Full Image: ModBlog.

(via Notes From Somewhere Bizarre).

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I think this is the original Channel 4 Disinfo show segment. There doesn’t appear to be any Morrison here that doesn’t appear on The Disinformation: Complete Series DVD, but it is a different edit. There is an interview at the end with artist Howard Hallis about his Picture of Everything that doesn’t appear on the DVD.

(via Phase II).

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Illustrations and artwork. Check his blog for more art. Some of these images are not safe for work.

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Ikipr has scanned and uploaded a set of Tattwas flash cards:

Long ago my friend’s dad’s bookshelf used to be a place of wonder. Old Occult text from the 60’s and 70’s. Crowley Books with hippie fairies on the cover, versions of things I had never seen, books I would begin to read and later aquire myself to finish. Among the things we found there were a set of Tattwa ‘flash cards.’ They were not the typical set of 5 tatwas but instead 22 hebrew letter corresponded combinations of the initial 5 tattwas. Our friend’s dad just gave them to us, he had been handed them on the street during the 80’s, never knew what they were, never used them, didn’t know where they came from either. Suprised the hell outta me since I knew he had the Golden Dawn book Regardie wrote laying around somewhere.

Info and Download: Phase II.

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Full Story: Neurophilosophy.

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[link to a closeup gallery]

[artist link]

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20 pics at the Fine Arts Blog.

(via Lupa).

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Occult musician and artist (and somtimes Foolish People collaborator) Skerror has a new blog up showcasing his art.

Skerror’s Future Oddities.

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I actually kinda like this one, but there are some pretty bad ones here. Some pics are NSFW.

See more: Type Brighter.

(Thanks Jessica!)

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Detailed pics at Datamancer.

(via Miss Patti).

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Eric Johnson Heller (b. 1946) lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is a member of the Physics and Chemistry faculties of Harvard University, where he also received his Ph.D. in 1973.

“Art has a unique capacity convey insights, intuitively and emotionally, about complex subject matter. If there is a short circuit to wisdom, it is through art. I try to exploit the powers of art to relate secrets of Nature only recently uncovered. A key element in my work is exploitation of Nature’s almost narcissistic self-similarity, her repetition of pattern on vastly different scales and in radically different contexts. Consider, the motion of the planets around the sun and electrons orbiting a nucleus, or waves on water and electron waves in a semiconductor. With such repetition, Nature provides her own windows into otherwise secret worlds.”

(Eric J. Heller Gallery)

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Idaho rave flyer gallery.

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A Pictorial History of the Black Mass.

Also: The Cat Piano and the Black Sabbath.

Wikipeida: Black Mass.

(Via Tracy Twyman).

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