Tag Archives: fine art

Post-Chapter One Liquid Girl III

So how far back does the whole liquid girl/Apsinthion Protocol thing go?  One of the odd but surpassingly charming aspects of being a pervert infovore is that you can keep finding astonishing antecedents for your own thing.  And wouldn’t you know it but one popped up for me just as I was putting together this little post sequence.

It came from reading Deborah Lutz‘s new Pleasure Bound:  Victorian Sex Rebels and the New Eroticism, in a passage about John Everett Millais‘s (1829-1896) painting Ophelia (1852)

Ophelia’s body dissolves into the glittering water that surrounds her.  Woman becomes nature in an epiphanic transformation…With her hands and wrists held above the water in a kind of passive supplication, her parted lips and tilted head show a willingness to be ravished.  Death appears as the ultimate ecstasy, its climax reaching a similar intensity as the sexual orgasm.

You’re not kidding, Professor Lutz — take a look at the painting.

You can click on the image for larger or, if you want lots of detail and have lots of bandwidth, you can find a giant (7087×4280 pixels) version of it here, courtesy of the Google Art Project.

Not only is there dissolution and orgasm going on here, but there’s an awful lot of green…which seems appropriate, somehow.

Something that strikes me as curious, by the by.  The pre-Raphaelites (an artistic brotherhood of whom Millais was one of the founders) would seem to be unlikely candidates for generating mad-science art, given their thematic focus on an imagined pre-industrial (and therefore low-tech) past.  But they seem to show up again and again and again here at EroticMadScience.com.  Must be all that eroticism.  Even before I had the benefit of Professor Lutz’s guidance, I already knew those Victorians were all pervy.

The model in the painting, by the way, was Elizabeth Siddal, who would eventually meet a fate worthy of a second-tier character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  But I’ll just suggest you get a copy of Pleasure Bound to find that one out…

Metrobay III

There are many artists who’ve worked on Dr. Robo and Finister Foul‘s Metrobay universe, and I am sure that all of them hold to the injunction never to forget Metropolis, but there was one who caught my eye in particular:  Trishbot, and her Metropolis-inspired illustration Retro Brainwashing.

To my eye a most alluring image, presented here by kind permission of the artist.  Click on the image for full size, and you can see the deservedly-laudatory viewer comments at DeviantArt at the work’s page here.

They went seaward

It turns out that the meme of people striding naked into the sea to transform into sea creatures, one so lovingly illustrated for Erotic Mad Science by Bokuman recently, has an artistic and perhaps even a mythological antecedent.

Found recently at Janitor of Lunacy.  The artist is Edwin Willard Deming (1860-1942) about whom I haven’t been able to learn a great deal (there’s a short biography here and a notice from The New York Times in 1914 about one of his exhibitions here), except that he achieved notice as a painter of scenes of Native American life, which makes me think that perhaps this painting is an illustration of a Native American story or myth, though my sadly-limited knowledge of such things means that this can be only conjecture on my part.  (If anyone knows better, please write in.)

For my part, the painting really does make me want to head for a seashore somewhere…

Tartarus VI

Script for today:

Page 16

Kupler, sitting behind her desk, her eyebrow raised, holding the packet of money by her fingertips.

CAPTION: I’ve assured at least some good might come from this grisly adventure.

KUPLER: I understand you.

Taylor standing in the entrance foyer of an elegant hotel room, next to a BELLHOP who is gesturing obsequiously.

CAPTION: Even if Kupler understands me, she still insists on my staying 48 hours in a luxury hotel to make sure I think it over.

Taylor looking into a mirror in an elegantly appointed bathroom, sticking something up her nose on the end of a pair of tweezers.

CAPTION: Which works for me, because I have a comm device I need to put somewhere safe…

View of Taylor’s face.  She is biting her lip and a trickle of blood is running out of one of her nostrils.

CAPTION: Fuck that hurt.

Taylor lying her back, naked, her hand between her spread legs.

CAPTION:Since in fact there’s nothing for me to “think over” I lie around.  I watch CNN and BBC and masturbate to pass the time.

Taylor staring out a window.  The light indicates the sun is at a low angle.

CAPTION:And watch the sun rise and set twice.

 

Page 17

A view of a hi-rise cityscape.  In the middle there is a solid black cube.

CAPTION: “Level II” is a vast, windowless building right in the middle of Munai City.

View of Taylor’s face, looking up, brow wrinkled, through the window of a limousine.

CAPTION: It would stand out most places, but all modern architecture in Munai is brutal and ugly.

A uniformed guard holds open a black door in a black wall leading to a black space beyond.  We see Taylor from behind, about to step over the threshold.

CAPTION: “Abandon all hope…” but I love you, Marie.

Taylor stands facing a group of black-robed figures who sit on a high bench in front of her.  Behind them are blazing torches.  To Taylor’s right there is some sort of brazier with a lit torch next to it.  In front of her, a pool of water that seems to glow slightly.

CAPTION: These perverts…

CAPTION: They sure love their little rituals.

 

Page 18

Close up on FIRST ROBED FIGURE.

FIRST ROBED FIGURE: Who dares come before us to beg admittance?

Close up on Taylor’s face.  She looks forward, confidently.

TAYLOR: My name is Taylor Chase.

Close up on SECOND ROBED FIGURE

SECOND ROBED FIGURE: Henceforth address us in a manner befitting a slave.

Close-up on Taylor’s face.  She hangs her head abjectly.

TAYLOR: Yes, my lords.

Close up on a THIRD ROBED FIGURE, who points with his index figure.

THIRD ROBED FIGURE: You realize that you may go only by our leave, perhaps never?

Close up on a FOURTH ROBED FIGURE

FOURTH ROBED FIGURE: You realize that we may do with you what we will and you shall submit and obey without complaint?

Close up on the FIFTH ROBED FIGURE

FIFTH ROBED FIGURE: You agree that henceforth you are nothing, save a vessel of pleasure?

Close up on Taylor, who continues to hang her head abjectly.

TAYLOR: Yes, my lords.

Close up on Taylor’s feet. It becomes clear in this panel that she is standing on a patch of dirt.

FIRST ROBED FIGURE (out-of-panel balloon): Then strip completely.  Expose yourself to use and to the air.

 

The image of a naked woman facing judgment from a group of robed figures is, naturally, an opportunity to put in another striking image from Jean-Léon Gérôme, The Judgment of Phryne,who found herself in a similar situation once:

(Click on image for a larger version.)  It is said that the Aeropagus, on seeing Phryne naked, promptly acquitted her of whatever it was that she was accused of.

Well, I would have, wouldn’t you?

Bespoke Art Gallery now added to Erotic Mad Science

Seeing as I appear to be commissioning more and more original artwork for Erotic Mad Science (there are six completed works, and others in the pipeline), I’ve decided to gather it in one place rather than just have it scattered across a sequence of presentation posts. Allow me to introduce, therefore, the Bespoke Art Gallery, which will now be its own page here.

As the screenshot indicates, you will now be able to reference art by thumbnail, and get summaries of information about the artwork.  While the gallery is still in development (and might change in the future), I do hope it will be helpful and agreeable to readers.  Enjoy!

Teuthology X

Script for today:

Page 28

View of TECHNICIAN #1 and TECHNICIAN #2, sitting side-by-side at two computer terminals (we see them over the screens, so we can see their faces. TECHNICIAN #1 s typing frantically, while TECHNICIAN #2 is staring at his screen in disbelief.

TECHNICIAN #1: Shit! Someone’s triggered an encryption virus.

View of Shackleford, who’s turned around, with an enraged expression on his face. Chen is behind him, cradling his shocked hand. Still further in the background, Edith/Octopus’s tank.

SHACKLEFORD: WHAT?

CAPTION (Technician #1 speaking): It means we can’t get at any of the data, sir.

Edith/Octopus’s P.O.V. Shackleford has his finger jammed up against the glass, with an enraged expression on his face.

SHACKLEFORD: Type this in, Chen…

CAPTION (Machine talk): I can have you made into sushi, Sterling!

View inside the tank. Edith/Octopus has transformed herself (a native ability of Thaumoctopus mimicus) into the form of a lionfish.

CAPTION (Machine talk): Do you want to have only encrypted gobblydegook to show your superiors for data, Admiral?

Another view inside the tank. Edith/Octopus has transformed herself again, this tme into a sea snake.

CAPTION (Machine talk): I think in return for that data, you can come up with the budget to turn those poor girls back.

Edith/Octopus’s P.O.V. Shackleford is looking back into the tank with a shocked, disbelieving expression. Chen has raised an eyebrow.

CAPTION (Machine talk): That’s one of my conditions for getting your data back. Once it’s satisfied, I shall have another. Don’t worry. It will be easy.

Page 29

View of a half-girl, half-octopus, floating in a transparent horizontal tube, which is half full of liquid. Outside the tube, there are some largish ray-gun like objects pointed at the tube. Technicians in white coats and dark goggles are manipulating the ray-guns.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): I knew, of course, that a little blackmail would be necessary to get this project moving in the right direction.

Another view, from above, this of a more human-looking girl, floating naked on the surface of a now open tube. She has a number of IV lines running into her. Her eyes are closed. A WOMAN DOCTOR is examining one of the IV lines. SHACKLEFORD is standing at the side of the tank, looking at the girl, leaning a little close…

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Their set-up here was just a little too obvious.

Same view as before, except that now the Woman Doctor is glaring at Shackleford, who has straightened up and is pretending to pay close attention to something else.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): I mean, it’s not like I’m really the top person in my field. I had other attributes that made me a good candidate for their little scheme.

View inside Edith/Octopus’s tank. There are a number of screens visible to Edith/Octopus. Some show data, others show video feeds of girls in the process of being transformed back into girls.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Beyond my ability to monitor the process and offer helpful suggestions from my data.

Flashback view of Edith, sprawled on a couch, the glow of a television set, having fallen asleep.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): They did their homework. A scientist with no close family, no significant other, about to not get tenure…

Page 30

Another view of Edith, hanging on the cruciform gurney.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): No one would ask too many questions if Edith Sterling were to just drop out of sight

View of the padded room from Page 9 of this script (the one containing the captive Dr. Sin), except that this time the room is empty.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): For all I know, there is no Dr. Sin. They needed help with their own research project that went off the rails.

Two working-class guys, sitting at a working-class bar. A bartender is polishing a mug in the background. Half-finished beers sit in front of both men. One is telling a story to another, who wears an astonished expression.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): It’s pretty difficult to keep local cops hushed up.

Close-up view of the panel under which Edith was working before, and the junction box which she installed.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): But one thing their homework didn’t tell them was that I did a lot of hacking as a rebellious teenaged girl, and I still have my chops.

View from above, looking down at a section of the factory floor. We see down into Edith/Octopus’s tank. We can see her outline. She is surrounded by monitors, but can see out the front of the tank. Arrayed in front of the tank are three pretty young women, wearing white terrycloth bathrobes and slippers. On one end of the line of young women stands a nurse with a clipboard, on the other Shackleford, in full-dress uniform, making a hand gesture as if to indicate “Here they are.”

CAPTION (Upper left, Edith thinking): I insist on seeing my work completed. It’s a good thing that these women are at least physically normal again. I had to do this, because “young woman risks life to save other women” is the sort of sentimental script Shackleford and his crew will be fooled by.

CAPTION (Lower right, Edith thinking): They would have never gone for the real reason…

And the real reason has something to do with…

I believe the artist is Hajime Sorayama, and the image comes from this Hungarian (I think) blog.

Teuthology VIII

Script for today:

Page 22

Full-view of Edith hanging on the cruciform gurney. Bolts of “electricity” are surging forth from the large, ray-gun like objects and strikes her. Edith’s mouth is open.

SFX: Zzzzt!

CAPTION (Chen speaking): Initiate sequence beta.

EDITH: Ahhhrgh….

View of Edith’s head. It is hanging down with a stuporous expression.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Time passes. Something like consciousness comes and goes.

Close up view of Edith’s thigh. Someone in a biohzaard suit is injecting something into it.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): The techs follow Dr. Sin’s bizarre protocol. I get a lot of injections.

Another view of Edith’s head. Her eyes are shut and her mouth is hanging open. An eerie glow of radiation surrounds her head.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): All sorts of quanta penetrate my tender ribosomes.

Page 23

View of Edith’s midsection. Octopus arms are beginning are beginning to emerge.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Changes are beginning to happen to me.

View of Edith’s face. Her hair has fallen away, leaving her bald. The head is flattened, retreating into her body.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): It grows harder and harder to breath in the open air.

A still-more octopus-like creature in the tank. A panel extends down into the water, with buttons that the Edith-octopus can push with her arms. She is pushing one and a button is lighting up.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): An arrangement has been made for me to communicate.

A close-up of one of Edith’s hands. Her fingers are abnormally short.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Digits are retreating.

The gurney is positioned above a tank. It is now empty. A half-octopus, half-Edith like creature is in the tank below.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Fortunately I can take to the water now.

View outside the tank. A large antenna-like object is pointing at the tank.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): I sure hope we’re capturing all the relevant data.

A view slightly further up her arm. Round circles – the beginning of suckers, are starting to appear.


CAPTION (Edith thinking): New organs are starting to appear.

Close-up view of the junction box Edith was installing on the panel below. It is glowing slightly.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Because I am so fucked if we’re not.

Page 24

View of a Thaumoctopus mimicus in a tank (Edith, her transformation nearly complete – from here on visual depictions of Edith in octopus will be referred to as “Edith Octopus”). Inside the tank there is a large screen with various computer windows open on it, as well as a sort of oversize keyboard and trackball. Octopus Edith is gazing at the screen.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): My memories and consciousness seem to have survived the transformation. That’s fortunate. I think.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Some hasty improvisation in equipment was necessary for me to continue my work.

Close up view of Edith’s octopus arms on the keyboard.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): It takes some practice to get this rather tricky combination of arms to work.

View of the screen. In one of the windows is a sentence written in large text: CAN YOU COMMUNICATE, PROFESSOR STERLING?

CAPTION (Edith thinking): But with a little practice…

View from outside the tank. We can see the Edith/octopus within the tank. A screen facing us contains the text: YES, I CAN READ YOU.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): …I think I can manage.

Ah, the transformation scene. The inevitable way to make Dr. Faustus happy.

Exactly appropriate images might be tricky to find, but perhaps one that expresses how I feel was done by Molly Crabapple, who is blessed with weird.

You can see more of her amazing work at her site here.

Teuthology VI

Script for today:

Page 16

View of Edith, the upper half of her. She has now risen out of her chair, having put the dossier open on the table, pinned under Edith’s splayed fingers.

EDITH: Is that what you call having “ethics standards,” Admiral?

View of Shackleford, still standing at this end of the table, but beginning to fall back. His mouth is hanging open.

SHACKLEFORD (broken-line balloon): …

View of Shackleford again, this time having sunk back into his chair. He is covering his eyes with one hand.

SHACKLEFORD: What do you think, Chen.

View of Chen, sitting in his chair. He is in the act of scratching his chin thoughtfully.

CHEN: Well, the technical side of Professor Sterling’s proposal checks out…and from an ethical side I think she makes a serious point about doing something for the girls…

Another view of Chen, his face drawn into an insincere, tight-lipped smile. He is pointing into the air.

CHEN: You could always point out to the brass that the biochemical pathway data would be most useful for our BioEnhanced Soldier project.

View of Shackleford again, leaning forward on the table, his hands steepled, his brow knit in concentration.

SHACKLEFORD: Hmm…

Page 17

Night in Edith’s hotel room. She is wearing only an oversize GNOSIS COLLEGE sweatshirt. She has drawn the curtain to her window. She is holding a half-full wineglass and is standing, staring out the window, apparently lost in thought.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Always agreeable to get official approval for your own suicide run.

A view out the window. We see a cityscape by night.

CAPTION (Upper left, Edith thinking): I guess eyes lit up back at headquarters when they heard about the possibility of a new technology they could weaponize.

CAPTION (lower right, Edith thinking): I did of course emphasize there are families out there missing their daughters…

CAPTION (still lower right, Edith thinking): Guess I’d better try to get some sleep. There’s a lot of work ahead.

Page 18

Long view across the factory floor. There are a lot of white-coated technicians scattered around, and a lot more medical looking machinery. A small figure of Edith, in a white labcoat, stands in the middle of the panel and is pointing at something, as if giving directions.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): The promise of getting guns brings out a lot of money, a lot of equipment, and a lot of personnel.

Edith standing at a lab bench, wearing dark goggles and heavy gloves. She is holding a flask with long tongs which contains a glowing liquid.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Figuring out Dr. Sin’s protocols good enough to recreate isn’t that hard.

Edith looking down at a computer screen, her face illuminated.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): After all, he did make videos of his crimes.

Two technicians are working on something that looks like a large satellite dish.

CAPTION (Edith thinking): Capturing the data is trickier, but I have plenty of help for that.

Okay, sort of a bit of dull, bureaucratic script today.  I guess even mad scientists sometimes have to fill out paperwork and go to boring meetings (maybe that’s one reason why they’re so mad).   I’ll try to liven things up a bit with a thematically appropriate sirene, which I believe is the work of Max Klinger (1857-1920).

Teuthology III

Script for today:

Page 7

A MARINE and a SERGEANT, a tough, professional-looking military pair, are standing in a corner of the factory floor. The Marine is wearing a look of fear and nausea. while the Sergeant staring forward, hollow-eyed.

MARINE: Oh no. Oh gawd no…they’re going to uncover that thing again…no no no…

SEARGEANT: Steady, soldier. Get ahold of yourself….

The Marine has sunk to his knees and has burie3d his face in his hands. The Sergeant has his hands on the Soldier’s shoulders, as if trying to comfort him.

MARINE: I’m sorry, sergeant. I just can’t take this anymore. I’m putting in for a transfer back to Afghanistan…

A view inside a tank. What we see is something like a cross between an octopus and a human being. The head is shrunk back into the torso. The four human limbs have become somewhat tentacle-like, but there is some evidence of digits at the ends of them. Meanwhile, four other tentacles are sprouting from the merging head/torso. The eyes of this creature stare back at us pitifully…

CAPTION: Great Cthulhu…

Page 8

Edith is tuning into our point of view (motion captured in mid turn) . She is pointing angrily at the thing in the tank, which is dimly visible in the background.

EDITH (jagged balloon): What in hell are you doing here, Admiral?

Shackleford, backing away, his hands up in a placatory gesture.

SHACKLEFORD: Not us, Professor Sterling. This is something we found…

View of a young woman, dressed for club-going or some similar activity. She is being dragged into an alley by a shadowy figure who is holding a cloth over her face.

CAPTION (Shackleford speaking): It began as a law enforcement matter, investigating the disappearances of a number of local young women…

View of a “police detail” room (like the sort seen in The Wire). In the foreground DETECTIVE #1 is pinning something onto a bulletin board, while in the background, DETECTIVE #2 is listening to something over headphones.

CAPTION (Shackleford speaking): A special task force followed up leads, on the theory that they were dealing with either a white-slavery ring or maybe even a serial killer…

Page 9

A SWAT OFFCIER in full tactical gear is bashing in the side door to the factory with a hand-held battering ram.

CAPTION (Shackleford speaking): Surveillance and analysis eventually led them to this site. They came in prepared to face the worst..

The same Swat Officer holding aside a curtain, looking appalled. Another OFFICER is to his side, beginning to vomit.

CAPTION (Shackleford speaking): …but not for what they actually found.

A group of SWAT team members surrounding the prone, face-down form of DR. SIN. One is pointing his assault rifle at Sin’s head.

CAPTION (Shackleford speaking): The laboratory was being run by a character who called himself Dr. Sin. He was captured…

Dr. Sin sitting in a padded room, wearing a straightjacket. He is staring blankly into space.

CAPTION (Shackleford speaking): But he refuses to say anything and indeed has become rather non-responsive since his arrest.

Not what the shocked Edith Sterling is looking at today, exactly, but an arresting image on theme:

Done by the Japanese artist Masami Terokoa and found at this blog.  Or perhaps more on point, consider this image at Deviant Art by “venominon.”