The Many Worlds of Artist Suzanne Treister
February 7, 2008 1:12 AM Subscribe
The website of artist Suzanne Treister holds many treasures, such as watercolors based on NATO's item codification system, reimaginings of the front pages of various newspapers as alchemical drawings, invented Amiga videogame stills and, my favorite, the huge images from Hexen2039 - new military-occult technologies for psychological warfare. She's also the director of the International Corporation of Lost Structures and the Institute of Militronics and Advanced Time Interventionality, an organization committed to time travel based research since 2005. Rumor has it that Treister and IMATI star researcher Rosalind Brodsky are one and the same person. The Rosalind Brodsky page has a ton of stuff on it. Here's a small sample: Time Travel Equipment Designs, Brodsky's Delusional Watercolours, Biography of Rosalind Brodsky and Time Traveling Costumes.
How timely. I just arrived home from school after finishing this semester's second photo series. For the first critique I covered anachronisms (dinosaurs and super-oxygenated insects vs. the army.) This crit's work involves outer space and fish parts. Decided to unwind a bit with some MeFi browsing before cleaning up and going back to the studio and am now even more stoked about the directions my work takes me. Thank you so much for bringing Treister/Brodsky to my attention, Kattullus.
posted by bonobo at 2:27 AM on February 7, 2008
posted by bonobo at 2:27 AM on February 7, 2008
For detection of attempts to transport euphoric soundwaves through time.
This is awesome, thanks!
posted by mediareport at 4:05 AM on February 7, 2008
This is awesome, thanks!
posted by mediareport at 4:05 AM on February 7, 2008
I like her Nasa watercolors very much. I'll think I'll stick with Lost for my timetraveling mind-bending needs, though.
posted by DenOfSizer at 4:07 AM on February 7, 2008
posted by DenOfSizer at 4:07 AM on February 7, 2008
That's not time traveling equipment. I don't see a single flux capacitor. Much less anything that could contain huon particles.
posted by XMLicious at 4:19 AM on February 7, 2008
posted by XMLicious at 4:19 AM on February 7, 2008
If you'll excuse a derail, from the Hexen article:
This conceit allows Treister to depict links between various entities such as West Point military academy, Night on a Bald Mountain and its use in The Wizard of Oz
I haven't seen TWoO in a long while -- where/how is Mussorgsky's music used in the film?
posted by pax digita at 4:19 AM on February 7, 2008
This conceit allows Treister to depict links between various entities such as West Point military academy, Night on a Bald Mountain and its use in The Wizard of Oz
I haven't seen TWoO in a long while -- where/how is Mussorgsky's music used in the film?
posted by pax digita at 4:19 AM on February 7, 2008
pax digita—‘an arranged version is played during the scene where the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion rescue Dorothy from the Witch's castle.’ (according to wikipedia)
posted by misteraitch at 4:36 AM on February 7, 2008
posted by misteraitch at 4:36 AM on February 7, 2008
an organization committed to time travel based research since 2005.
Bah. The one I belong to dates from 2025.
posted by mono blanco at 4:53 AM on February 7, 2008 [1 favorite]
Bah. The one I belong to dates from 2025.
posted by mono blanco at 4:53 AM on February 7, 2008 [1 favorite]
Time Traveling Costumes
I wonder what the most time-generic costume would look like, one costume that could be worn in the most possible historical time frames without being conspicuous.
posted by StickyCarpet at 4:55 AM on February 7, 2008
I wonder what the most time-generic costume would look like, one costume that could be worn in the most possible historical time frames without being conspicuous.
posted by StickyCarpet at 4:55 AM on February 7, 2008
wow, this is aces, I love the alchemical Sun and Daily Express. Not much different from the hyper-shouty versions of the real thing.
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 5:00 AM on February 7, 2008
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 5:00 AM on February 7, 2008
"I wonder what the most time-generic costume would look like, one costume that could be worn in the most possible historical time frames without being conspicuous."
I actually used to fret about that one as a silly kid, stickycarpet.
(Along with whether lions could eat through filing cabinets- because I liked to plan for dangerous eventualities in the home!).
I always thought something baggy and hessian-hippy would do. I remember thinking it would be terrible if you got time-transported in your swimsuit!
posted by Jody Tresidder at 6:34 AM on February 7, 2008
I actually used to fret about that one as a silly kid, stickycarpet.
(Along with whether lions could eat through filing cabinets- because I liked to plan for dangerous eventualities in the home!).
I always thought something baggy and hessian-hippy would do. I remember thinking it would be terrible if you got time-transported in your swimsuit!
posted by Jody Tresidder at 6:34 AM on February 7, 2008
Those Amiga screenshots of games that never existed are bizarrely eerie. Completely giving me the creeps. I love it.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 7:02 AM on February 7, 2008
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 7:02 AM on February 7, 2008
Kattullus, what a treat to see her art. I feel like I'll perceive reality differently now. She's given me a sense of humor to play with the whole area of naming things things, corporate and military taxonomy, in some ways I never imagined or went in my imagination or never thought could be such fun. It's one thing to say Ceci n'est pas une pipe but it's quite another to give a Vivienne Westwood necklace a NATO classification. Delightfully reality warping.
Some of her art presses my whimsy button deeply, like the one mediareport linked, For detection of attempts to transport euphoric soundwaves through time.
Some made tears pop into my eyes, like Rosalind Brodsky's Electronic Time Travelling Costume to rescue her Grandparents from the Holocaust.
Thanks for expanding the playfulness of my perception.
posted by nickyskye at 9:00 AM on February 7, 2008
Some of her art presses my whimsy button deeply, like the one mediareport linked, For detection of attempts to transport euphoric soundwaves through time.
Some made tears pop into my eyes, like Rosalind Brodsky's Electronic Time Travelling Costume to rescue her Grandparents from the Holocaust.
Thanks for expanding the playfulness of my perception.
posted by nickyskye at 9:00 AM on February 7, 2008
I also liked the dress she wore to save her grandparents, but then ended up wearing in psychoanalysis with Freud.
I think the most ubiquitous costume for time-traveling would be a neutral (say beige or brown) long-sleeved shirt and darker pants for a man. A woman, for obvious reasons, would be more problematical: girdle or mini-skirt? High heels or ballet slippers? Bare arms or fingertip gloves?
posted by misha at 9:42 AM on February 7, 2008
I think the most ubiquitous costume for time-traveling would be a neutral (say beige or brown) long-sleeved shirt and darker pants for a man. A woman, for obvious reasons, would be more problematical: girdle or mini-skirt? High heels or ballet slippers? Bare arms or fingertip gloves?
posted by misha at 9:42 AM on February 7, 2008
Kattullus: this post is truly the best of the web. Awesome!
posted by dhruva at 5:22 PM on February 7, 2008
posted by dhruva at 5:22 PM on February 7, 2008
"Rumor has it that Treister and IMATI star researcher Rosalind Brodsky are one and the same person."
Excuse me?
This from the HEXEN2038 page:
"SUZANNE TREISTER
LONDON VENUES AND PROGRAMME OF EVENTS 2006/7
In 1995 Suzanne Treister created the fictional alter ego Rosalind Brodsky, a delusional time traveller who believes herself to be working at the Institute of Militronics and Advanced Time Interventionality (IMATI) in the twenty-first century.
HEXEN2039 charts Brodsky's scientific research towards the development of new mind control technologies for the British Military. This work uncovers or constructs links between conspiracy theories, occult groups, Chernobyl, witchcraft, the US film industry, British Intelligence agencies, Soviet brainwashing, behaviour control experiments of the US Army and recent practices of its Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (PSYOP), in light of alarming new research in contemporary neuroscience..."
posted by aldus_manutius at 7:06 AM on February 8, 2008
Excuse me?
This from the HEXEN2038 page:
"SUZANNE TREISTER
LONDON VENUES AND PROGRAMME OF EVENTS 2006/7
In 1995 Suzanne Treister created the fictional alter ego Rosalind Brodsky, a delusional time traveller who believes herself to be working at the Institute of Militronics and Advanced Time Interventionality (IMATI) in the twenty-first century.
HEXEN2039 charts Brodsky's scientific research towards the development of new mind control technologies for the British Military. This work uncovers or constructs links between conspiracy theories, occult groups, Chernobyl, witchcraft, the US film industry, British Intelligence agencies, Soviet brainwashing, behaviour control experiments of the US Army and recent practices of its Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (PSYOP), in light of alarming new research in contemporary neuroscience..."
posted by aldus_manutius at 7:06 AM on February 8, 2008
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posted by Kattullus at 1:23 AM on February 7, 2008