Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Guess who was re-reading "The Atrocity Exhibition"

Evidently if NASA want to stay in the space-program business then they'll have to engage in some serious lobbying and appealing to the public, what with this talk of increased budgets but outsourcing the earth-to-orbit part of the job (let's see if Russian or Chinese companies tender the most competitive bid).

Now if I were consulted, I'd advise them to work on the concept of
A group of withdrawn catatonic patients were exposed to a montage of films of space-shuttle explosions. Results included improved psychomotor activity and social responsiveness. A majority found the images erotic, reporting violent traumatic fantasies, with spontaneous orgasm in 2%. Morphing software was used to create the optimum shuttle casualty; this image consisted of 40% Christa McAuliffe from the Challenger shuttle, 35% Kalpana Chawla from the Columbia shuttle and 25% Ed White from Apollo 1. Suggestions for increasing the traumatic nature of space exploration are appended.
Sorry, that wasn't me, that was Zombie J. G. Ballard. He keeps sneaking into the Riddled office somehow and drinking my akvavit from the freezer, in the understandable belief that it's actually embalming fluid. As I was about to say,
With its connotations of sterility and affectless neutrality, the technology of space flight lends itself to the fetishised eroticism that drives a depersonalised, post-human economy. A group of moderately-demented Alzheimers Syndrome patients (occipital / parietal form, with visual agnosia) were shown photographs of various rocket engines and asked to identify them. None were able to do so correctly. The rockets were most frequently described as women wearing flaring crinolines or farthingale dresses, with the fuel pumps, gimbals and pipes seen as the arms and breasts of the upper body, frequently unclothed. This interpretation was as common among female patients as among males. The Saturn F1 engine was chosen as the most appealing photograph. An artist's synthesis of these descriptions was distributed as pornography through a false website. Surveillance of customers who downloaded the synthesis showed improved social function, including greater work productivity and more frequent sexual activity with domestic partner or car.
Well it doesn't look as if I'm going to be able to say anything today. If anyone wants me I'll be by the freezer.

Oh look, Phoebe Gloeckner (illustrator of the RE/Search edition of Atrocity Exhibition) has a website.

11 comments:

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

I feel a bit weird submitting this, and you might not find it relevant at all, but I just discovered this “X-Ray Porn” and it, for whatever reason, reminded me of Ballard!

Reminds me of Leiber, but I can't find appropriate "ghoul" images.

Once again, the t00bz fail me.

Hamish Mack said...

Good old Wim, when not tattooing pigs, even turned the ‘Kiss’ series into a stained-glass window…
Not a Lutheran church I think

mikey said...

So are the Queens in the picture gay-marrying?

'Cause if they are, they have done all that's necessary to prevent the onset of "Cold Feet"...

Smut Clyde said...

Feel free to drag-&-drop the rolling eyes over the heads of the rocket-engine ladies, though I'm not sure if this is an improvement.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

outsourcing the earth-to-orbit part of the job

REALLY BIG TREBUCHETS.

Where's my billion dollar contract?

ckc (not kc) said...

...nice art - needs more rocks

Hamish Mack said...

Where's my billion dollar contract?
In the mail,dude. Thanks for the idea!!

Smut Clyde said...

REALLY BIG TREBUCHETS.
The NZ space program is supposed to be classified.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Smut, even you have to admit that it is pretty much based on teh Soviet space program:

Hurl stuff up; let it fall.

I do not trust AK assurances. I will need collateral in the form of very strong alcohol and large tracts of land.

Hamish Mack said...

In the true spirit of rugged individualism, I offer ZRM shiny beads and blankets (NOT from Wal-Mart) for his idea.

mikey said...

Dood, the patent on the Trebuchet expired in like 1456.

You can buy generic through canada.

Unless, of course, the NZ legislature has passed a law making it illegal for the NZ space program to use it's negotiating power on orbital insertion devices....