Live chat on science and art —

What happens when you combine science, art, and humor? Join Marc Abrahams of the Ig Nobel Prizes and Brian Wecht, a theoretical physicist and half of the music comedy duo Ninja Sex Party, for a live chat on the connections between creativity and research. The chat starts today at 3:00 pm Eastern time. — Maggie •

This Tron-o-saurus is part of Dinosaurs & Robots, a gallery show by artists Scott Elyard and Raven Amos, which opens tonight in Anchorage, Alaska. For more info, check out the video trailer that Elyard made.

Via Glendon Mellow, who you should follow for all your science-themed art needs.

I've spent an inordinate amount of time over at Monster Brains, a blog filled with thousands of scans of comic books, movie posters, science fiction paperbacks, model kit boxes, and other media starring monsters. Here are a few noteworthy ones.

A rather unusual weapon to have on the cover of a kids' comic book from the 1960s.

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Titan Books gave me permission to present samples from the new art book, The Definitive SF Works of Chris Foss. It's available in a standard edition for $21.14, and a special edition for $75 that comes in a slipcase with an alternate cover, an extra 8-page cover gallery and a signed Chris Foss print in an envelope.

Foss’s groundbreaking and distinctive science fiction art revolutionized paperback covers in the 1970s and 80s.  Dramatically raising the bar for realism and invention, his trademark battle-weary spacecraft, dramatic alien landscapes and crumbling brutalist architecture irrevocably changed the aesthetic of science fiction art and cinema.

Featuring work for books by Isaac Asimov, E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith, Arthur C. Clarke, A. E. Van Vogt and Philip K. Dick, and film design for Ridley Scott and Stanley Kubrick, this volume brings together many rare and classic images that have never been seen or reprinted before. The first comprehensive retrospective of Chris Foss’s SF career.

All images © Chris Foss courtesy ChrisFossArt.com

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Filmmaker Kim Pimmel combined ferrofluids, a magnet, soap bubbles, and dye to create this mesmerizing short video. Science + art = awesomesauce.

Video Link

Thanks, Brian Thomas!

My friend Tara Helfer, who you may remember as the illustrator of this lovely drawing I posted a while back, is taking on a pretty ambitious senior project: organize seventy two different artists to illustrate each of the demons in the Ars Goetia. As Tara describes:

Inspired by The Lesser Key of Solomon, comics, mythology and 17th-century grimoire, the 72DEMONS project is a venue for new and budding visual artists. Our goal is to compile and publish an illustrated book depicting the 72 demons archived in the Ars Goetia, believed to be a guide for summoning spirits...

Both traditional and digital pieces are accepted, so long as it is 2D. It is suggested that you work large (300 dpi at least) and keep it rated...oh, PG13. Above all, have fun with the project, evoking demons being dangerous and all. Try to bring out something in the demon that the original illustrators missed way back when.

About a third of the demons have been adopted by artists, but the project is just starting for the semester. If you'd like to adopt a demon, you should read through the list of available ones then submit the application form.

Ars Goetia: 72 demons

Heritage Auctions is auctioning off the Jerry Weist Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art and Books on September 11 in Beverly Hills. Some amazing pieces of art and artifacts are being offered.

This 1966 Frank Frazetta painting from a Ray Bradbury paperback book cover is estimated at $40,000-$60,000. I have a feeling it will go for much more than that, even though it doesn't feature one of Frazetta's trademark curvaceous woman brandishing a spear or zap gun.

Only 200 copies of Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 were printed with an asbestos cover. What lucky future mesothelioma victim is going to get this copy, signed by the author? Opening bid is $3000.

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I don't quite understand how I've kept forgetting to post this here since my friend Leah showed it to me months ago. I also don't quite understand how Cory didn't get to it first. Regardless: Behold, Professor Elemental and his delightful combination of tounge-in-cheek Victorian parody rap + actually damn fine beats.

For context: This is a dis song aimed at the other Victorian parody rapper, Mr. B, The Gentleman Rhymer. After careful consideration, I think I'm on Team Professor Elemental.

Special thanks to Samuelito and Senor Schaffer, who tried to get our attention about this in Submitterator and were somehow overlooked.

Video Link

YanquiUXO, the Reddit user who originally posted this sign says that it comes from the Harvard Museum of Natural History, which hosts an annual event that allows artists to set up installations and performance art inside the museum. This is one of those pieces.

I can't find the name of the artist of this particular piece, though, so if you know, holler.

Many of the Redditors have wondered whether this piece took real-life inspiration from a lion that was famously (poorly) taxidermied for the King of Sweden in 1731. I have no idea, but the lion itself must be seen to be believed. The derp is strong with this one.

Image via Ed Yong

Ironclad beetles play dead when they feel threatened. And they're so good at it that, in Mexico, the living animals are often bedazzled and sold as jewelry. Jewelry that, occasionally, moves on its own. Neat! But you should not try to wear one back to the United States. (Via Greg Gbur)

David Byrne made a bunch of fake screenshots for iPhone apps that don't exist. They'll be in an exhibit called "Social Media," at The Pace Gallery (510 West 25th Street) from September 16 - October 15.

Show description: "The exhibition focuses on contemporary artists exploring public platforms for communication and social networks through an aesthetic and conceptual lens. In an era of increasingly omnipresent new technologies, Social Media examines the impact of these systems as they transform human expression, interaction, and perception."

In addition to David Byrne's work, Social Media will feature work by Christopher Baker, Aram Bartholl, Jonathan Harris, Robert Heinecken, Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher, Sep Kamvar and Penelope Umbrico.

Social Media at Pace Gallery

See more of David Byrne's fake apps after the jump.

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