Moving at a speed of 100 inventions per year

June 2, 2008 9:00 AM

Madman or genius? Well... madman. But being confined to an asylum (with one of his symptoms described as "manic invention") didn't keep Karl Hans Janke from developing elaborate theories of atomic energy, flight, space travel and the history of humanity, creating over 4,000 complex drawings and even models over 40 years of incarceration for paranoid schizophrenia.

This PDF (found courtesy of things magazine) is the catalogue of a museum exhibition of Janke's work in Peenemünde in 2007, and features English and German articles and loads of scans of Janke drawings. I don't read German, so I suspect I'm missing all the best bits.

I discovered Janke through Cabinet Magazine (previously), which I think is the best periodical in North America at the moment.

Incidentally, the link to the gallery from the main page of the Janke site doesn't work; the correct link is this one. There's even a shop if you want your own Venusland poster.

posted by Shepherd (4 comments total)

Neat! I especially like the mechwarrior drop ship near the end.
posted by cowbellemoo at 9:05 AM on June 2, 2008

Laugh while you can, monkey boy!
posted by Meatbomb at 9:07 AM on June 2, 2008 [2 favorites]

These are awesome.
posted by DU at 9:19 AM on June 2, 2008

Dude, that PDF would be so much better if it had Flash embedded in it!
posted by Xoebe at 11:55 AM on June 2, 2008 [1 favorite]