Moonrise Over Junk Food (Your Monthly Ticket to Weirdness)

For this month we explore landscapes created with junk food, insane Steampunk calculators, and a vampire hunting kit.

Blue Dye #1 Precipice from the series Processed Views 2014

Blue Dye #1 Precipice from the series Processed Views 2014

 

Junk Food Landscapes

Always on the look out for the latest and most surreal items this world has to offer, I was stunned by how  artists Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman used junk food to recreate classic photographs by Carleton Watkins. Look at how the food artists recreated a 1869 photograph of the Farallon Islands photographs.

WatkinsSugarloaf

And now the Ciurej/Lochman version, titled Cola Sea (from the series Processed Views 2013).

SugarloafTest2psd

The artists use processed food to point out just how far our food has diverged from nature. They state: “As we move further away from the sources of our food, we head into uncharted territory replete with unintended consequences for the environment and for our health.”

Stempunk Calculators

Most of use think of calculators are objects from the computer age. Who can blame us when adding apps are available on smartphones or even Google.

idbsrlvxwnzbpjs9u4or

Check out these truly gorgeous beauties from an age where objects were crafted by hand. The calculator, built by Johann Helfrich Müller in 1784, evokes stempunk passion with it’s brass knobs and dials. Check out this close up the workings:

Calc

To view more of these marvelous mechanical wonders, visit this site.

A Love Story Through Coffee

Although this short film features a food product, and thus might fall under the category of propaganda, it’s so charming that it captures my heart. The characters, a boy and a girl, are dusted onto the tops of 1000 cups of cappuccino. The story shows their courtship, love, and family. The commercial is for Ajinomoto General Foods’ Maxim Stick drink flavoring. Watch and enjoy.

Tim Kane

Rube Goldberg Devices

I’ve always adored Rube Goldberg devices. It may stem from watching too much Tom and Jerry or Wile E Coyote as a young tot. Each of those fellas built some outlandish contraptions.

Another great product from Acme

The origin of these machines dates back a century to Ruben Lucius Goldberg. At a young age, he obsessed with tracing from books, newspapers, and calendars. After a failed career as an engineer, he began drawing cartoons for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Perhaps the best device I’ve seen to date is “Page Turner”. Watch and enjoy.

Tim Kane