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Making the Posters Dance: Victor Moscoso's
Four-Dimensional Posters and Adventures in
Exhibition Concept, Design, and
Archiving* / Scott B. Montgomery
<1> Generally, posters do not move, let alone dance, wave, wink, or fly.
They tend to stay still, affixed to walls. In keeping with the advertising
mandate originally inherent in the medium, clarity in delivering a message
is frequently a guiding principle in poster design. Artistry is employed
in the service of communicating the idea, whether political, social, or
commercial. But art's role has tended to be subservient - to attract the
viewer's eye toward the advertising message. Transcending this, the poster
reached its first artistic apotheosis in the late 19th/early 20th century
work of Art Nouveau masters such as Alphonse Muccha. Taking a cue from Art
Nouveau posters, 1960s psychedelic poster artists brought stunning visual
artistry to the forefront - ignoring the advertising mandate traditionally
imposed upon the medium. While vibrant artistic pockets existed elsewhere,
the cultural nexus of the psychedelic poster movement was San Francisco.
Here a countercultural hothouse environment spawned a distinct aesthetic
vision. Reproducible and inexpensive, posters were the ideal visual format
for the so-called "hippie" counterculture's self-expression. Psychedelic
posters are the high art of the counterculture.
<2> This fecund cultural environment nurtured a tremendous sense of
artistic experimentation, the fruits of which include some truly audacious
artistic challenges to any perceived limitation of the poster's
possibilities. The art of the psychedelic poster is in opposition to the
traditional mandate of immediate, clear delivery of the advertising
message. Instead, psychedelic posters request that you explore their
visual splendor, their optic play, their art. It is more about the ride
than the message. This is, of course, perfectly in accord with the general
psychedelic ethos of exploring new possibilities and impossibilities by
transcending or side-stepping expectations, norms, and perceived
realities, as expressed in slogans such as "Turn on, tune in, drop out"
and "Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream."[i] Psychedelic
posters invite you to slow down, accept the ride, and find meaning in your
own way and at your own pace. Take time to look and enjoy the visual trip
is the psychedelic poster's siren call.
<3> Spanning roughly 1965-1971, the San Francisco area psychedelic poster
movement enjoyed its real apex in 1967-68. Part art movement and part
cultural phenomenon, psychedelic posters were the visual nexus for the
expression of countercultural identity, ideals, and recreations. Among the
numerous poster artists, eight emerge as the most significant in terms of
quality, quantity, and influence. These are among the greatest pioneers of
the psychedelic aesthetic - Stanley Mouse, Wes Wilson, Rick Griffin, Alton
Kelley, Bonnie MacLean, Lee Conklin, David Singer, and, of course, Victor
Moscoso. Their elevated artistry and experimental conceptions fashioned
some of the most iconic imagery of the era. Formulating a suitably varied
psychedelic style, these poster artists fused diverse elements of dynamic
line, bold color, surreal and shape-shifting imagery, experimentation with
printing techniques, and a general sense of embracing the ineffable, the
indefinable, and the unpredictable. All psychedelic artists invite a sense
of visual play, but along with Griffin and Conklin, Moscoso excels at
forcing us to work hard at this play. An investment of time is essential
to "get it," though the reward is great. We don't necessarily slow down
because we want to, but rather because we must. The posters draw us in,
rewarding protracted gazing by revealing their secrets slowly. Viewing
becomes more about looking than necessarily understanding. Psychedelic and
countercultural ideals are artistically expressed in the visual
exploration of what one Acid Test flier heralded "expect the
unexpectable."[ii]
<4> One of the most unexpectable artistic manifestations of the poster
movement was the evocation of movement on posters - the play of time. This
was most dramatically achieved by Victor Moscoso in the eight four-
dimensional (4D) posters that he produced during 1967-68. These are
stationary images that perform the passage of time when viewed under
special lighting conditions. I call them 4D posters because they play
within the realm of time, as their designs only unfold over time, becoming
almost cinematic. Through strategic use of off-set lithographic printing
and the development of a special light box, Moscoso was able to fashion
"moving" posters that transcend their traditional poster-ness and "enter
the realm of poetry," as the artist notes. Moscoso's 4D posters are an
innovative fusion of ideas related to kinetic art, light art, cinema, and
graphic design. He was not making advertising posters, but rather making
art in the poster medium. Novel in concept and execution, these posters
are among the most daring experiments of the psychedelic poster movement
in the San Francisco area. Appearing during the zenith of 1967-68, these
posters should be seen as part of these artists' endeavor to challenge the
boundaries of art. Moscoso consciously challenged himself to explore new
artistic frontiers, pushing the poster beyond its traditional boundaries.
The most formally and theoretically-trained of all the movement's artists,
Moscoso had studied with color-theorist Joseph Albers. Putting his art-
school background to good use, particularly in his groundbreaking
psychedelic color experiments, he wanted to break the poster's so-called
"five-second rule" of advertising, wishing to slow one down and take time
to look. Now, Moscoso sought to make one look at time. In doing so, he
extended the psychedelic poster's conceptual novelty to its farthest
reaches - transcending its very poster-ness. And why not? If three-
dimensional people were aspiring toward the fifth dimension, why couldn't
two-dimensional posters reach for the fourth dimension?
<5> Fluid, stretched time has always been a key factor in psychedelic art
and experience. Moscoso took this axiom in the most novel direction with
his 4D posters, images that do not move but appear to with changing lights
(or blinking eyes). In doing so, the posters transcend their existential
planarity, their very "posterness." They become images about time and
motion themselves. There is a dimensional slippage here, as the spatial
third dimension is bypassed on the way to the temporal fourth. In much the
same way that he intentionally inverted traditional rules of color harmony
in his exploration of the possibilities of intense color juxtaposition,
Moscoso stormed the gates of time by changing the rules. This pioneering
extension of the poster's possibility invites an almost synesthetic
transcendence of media, the senses, and perhaps even sense. As Moscoso so
beautifully articulates it, "You get the dimension of time....and it
enters the realm of poetry and music."[iii]
<6> While designing a poster for The Family Dog's concerts by The Doors
and The Sparrow (shortly to evolve into Steppenwolf) at San Francisco's
Avalon Ballroom on May 12-13, 1967 Moscoso came across a photograph that
would felicitously inspire his exploration of the fourth dimension in
poster art. [iv]
FIGURE 1 - Victor Moscoso. The Doors, The Sparrow. May 12-13, 1967. Avalon
Ballroom, San Francisco (FD-61). © Rhino Entertainment Company. Used with
permission. All rights reserved.
<7> "It comes from Edison. I was looking through a book on silent films. I
saw a kinetoscope with a 35mm film loop inside - the loop was shot by
Edison and it was a lady named Annabelle dancing with wings."[v] This was
doubtless a screen-still from W.K.L Dickson, William Heise, and Thomas
Edison's 1894 film of Annabelle Whitford's terpischorian flutters, known
as Annabelle's Butterfly Dance.[vi] The 4D aspect "was originally a
mistake. I stumbled across it the way Columbus stumbled on America."
[vii] In keeping with the experimental ethos of the time, Moscoso printed
the image off-register to see how it would look. "I got one frame with the
wings up, and I wanted to echo the movement by printing the colors off-
register. A friend of mine - Howard Hesseman - had a hallway covered with
dance-concert posters, lit with Christmas tree lights. The red, blue and
green were strong. The yellow was too weak. And he said 'Victor, you know
that poster you did last week, with the lady with wings....well, she
flies!' And I knew how his hall was arranged with the lights, so I knew
exactly what he was talking about. The red canceled the blue and the blue
canceled the red."[viii] Though interested in exploring the suggestion of
movement, Moscoso had no idea that the right lighting would translate a
suggestion of wings moving into a full-fledged perception of them flapping
in time - the fourth dimension[FILM 1]. The alternating colors cancel one
another, making the readily visible part of the poster shift as the lights
change, thereby creating actual movement within the perception of the
image. Simple, but revolutionary, it was a psychedelic breakthrough for
the poster. It is suitably serendipitous that the image source for
Moscoso's first filmic poster was an early film produced by another
visionary maker of moving images. Like a screening of Edison's film framed
by pulsating lettering, the poster lets Annabelle fly to an altogether
different medium. Fluttering from film to film-still to filmic un-still
poster, Annabelle flutters across moving pictures and moving posters
alike.
<8> Though initially an accident, the idea was quickly developed by
Moscoso who explored and perfected the possibilities of motion within a
two-dimensional poster. Once Hesseman alerted him to Annabelle's aerial
abilities, Moscoso began to explore the idea. Starting tentatively, his
first conscious 4D poster advertises the Youngbloods at the Avalon
Ballroom on June 15-18, 1967.
FIGURE 2 - Victor Moscoso. Youngbloods, Siegal Schwall Band. June 15-18,
1967. Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (FD-66). © Rhino Entertainment
Company. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
<9> Moscoso is still experimenting and the design is simple. A somnolent
lady leans up to observe the flexing of an ominously-looming muscle man [
FILM 2]. With no yellow register in her head, the fluidity of its motion
is somewhat reduced, as only the red and blue parts appear to change
somewhat abruptly. Moscoso's third 4D design was his poster for the July
1967 Joint Show at the Moore Gallery in San Francisco (printed June 30,
1967).
FIGURE 3 - Victor Moscoso. Joint Show. July 1967. Moore Gallery, San
Francisco (NR-25). © Victor Moscoso. Used with permission. All rights
reserved.
<10> Here, he tried a two-color variation of pink and green, perhaps to
facilitate its use with 3D movie glasses [ FILM 3]. This too is a
relatively tame design and the sense of motion is only partly successful.
A year later, Moscoso would reprise the pink-green two-tone once more in
the playful romp that announces the Who at the Shrine Auditorium, Los
Angeles on June 28-29, 1968.
FIGURE 4 - Victor Moscoso. The Who, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, The Crazy
World of Arthur Brown. June 28-29, 1968. Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles
(AOR. 3.75). © Victor Moscoso. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
<11> Here the delightful and visually overwhelming design allows for a
denser, more successful movement of figures through space [ FILM 4].
<12> But, as Annabelle first demonstrated, it is the tri-color (red,
yellow and blue) that best activates the four-dimensional effect. With
this in mind, Moscoso returned to the idea in earnest in mid-1968,
designing his four four-dimensional masterpieces. Though all four were
commissioned to ostensibly advertise, they come across first and foremost
as works of art that explore the issue of time. Like his fellow
psychedelic poster-makers, Moscoso's work extended well beyond the context
of advertising rock concerts. Like them, he used the contexts of
commercial, cultural, and rock advertising as opportunities for
independent artistic exploration. It often seems as though the event or
product is completely incidental to the aesthetic "meaning" of the work.
Like his colleagues, Moscoso was exploring the limits (or lack thereof) of
graphic art itself. While the earliest of his 4D experiments were produced
for rock concerts, his most successful examples were produced for a
variety of different contexts. Therefore, Moscoso's experiments ought to
be understood more in terms of conceptual artistic exploration than in
terms of "Rock Art," as is so often the case. Like 1967s The Joint
Show exhibition and the Neon Rose series, Moscoso's 4D posters proclaim a
certain artistic autonomy, asserting the artist's vision as central to the
poster's meaning and purpose as art. Calling attention to their artistic
legitimacy, Moscoso included them as part of his Neon Rose series - a
travelling poster show and personal artist manifesto.
<13> Moscoso was commissioned to design the cover for the debut album by
The Steve Miller Band, Children of the Future, released in June 1968. Both
the front cover and the inner gatefold included off-set printing that
would move under the proper lighting. The related promotional poster
reprises the theme of the quintet as a flock of flapping bird-men.
FIGURE 5 - Victor Moscoso. The Steve Miller Band Children of the
Future promo. 1968 (NR-23). © Victor Moscoso. Used with permission. All
rights reserved.
<14> Moscoso's poster primarily engages through its sense of movement, as
the letters are largely overshadowed by the more adamant avian antics
above [FILM 5]. Surprisingly, the shifting lighting actually makes the
poster easier to read, as the shadows that emerge with the flickering of
the lights draw attention to the letters that are otherwise hidden in
plain sight at the bottom. This was the 4D design most frequently seen "at
work" thanks to a number of in-store promotional displays that were
created, in which the poster image was reproduced within a three-
dimensional cardboard armature that could be lit with a tri-color strobe
to create the sense of movement.
<15> Moscoso's most filmic 4D poster appropriately celebrates Pablo Ferro
Films - pioneers of quick-cut editing, split-screen shots, and movie title
design.
FIGURE 6 - Victor Moscoso. Pablo Ferro Films. 1968 (NR-22). © Victor
Moscoso. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
<16> Like Ferro's cinematic developments, Moscoso's poster unfolds in a
multi-shot narrative, arranged across six scenes, like film stills… though
hardly remaining still [FILM 6]. Rather than words, it is the
compositional format and its animation that advertise the film company. A
little story emerges about a violin busker and the magic transformation of
a flower offering into a butterfly woman. The filmic emergence of the
butterfly hearkens back to the origin of the 4D posters in Annabelle's
butterfly dance, which itself originated in film. Though ostensibly
arranged sequentially like film, the story appears in six simultaneous
frames of a larger narrative. Time is both presented and folded in on
itself, making the processing of this image itself an exercise in temporal
transcendence. Time does not stand still, but remains in perpetual motion,
though not in an uninterrupted single-direction. Moscoso evokes time,
shows time, and then ultimately undermines its very chronology. The effect
is like a psychedelic nickelodeon polyptych that challenges one to take in
the larger story through the simultaneous repetition of six connected
micro-narratives. A clear advertising message is not really the intent of
the poster, which moves to speak the visual language of Ferro's film-work,
translated into a psychedelic dialect for the poster to speak. In concept
and execution, this reveals previously-unrealized possibilities for the
poster as art. Space is invoked and then revoked, a narrative is set and
then undermined, as a single "film" is shown but in simultaneous sections.
It is like a film, but not. It is like a poster, but not. Negotiating
between the two, this image somehow manages to transcend the norms of both
media.
<17> With the text so finely embedded into the poster as to be difficult
to even find, the Pablo Ferro poster becomes essentially about temporal
and cinematic effects performed across two-dimensions. Tucked into the
green cloudy frame above each scene, little pink arcs appear as though
glimpses of a text-embedded film reel that spins amidst the cloudy
bubbles. Beginning at the upper left and proceeding across and down
(echoing the flow of the visual narrative), it appears as though a single
pink reel is gradually rotated for each of its six appearances (above each
scene). Only upon considering the notion of the disc turning and moving
sequentially in time, spooling out the words, can one discern that it
carries the slogan - "Pablo Ferro Films Versatility And Love." Both the
text and image of the poster engage in the movement of time and movement
in time. It is a manifesto, asserting a poster's capacity to "compete"
with film itself as a temporally narrative medium. The poster can create
time and travel time. It has transcended itself....entering the realm of
film, music, and poetry.
<18> To advertise a poetry reading on June 8, 1968 at San Francisco's
Nourse Auditorium, Moscoso presents visual poetry in motion.
FIGURE 7 - Victor Moscoso. Incredible Poetry Reading. June 8, 1968. Nourse
Auditorium, San Francisco (NR-24). © Victor Moscoso. Used with permission.
All rights reserved.
<19> With a who's-who roster of counterculture poets, including
Ferlinghetti and Ginsberg, the reading promised to be as incredible, as
the poster that heralded it. Amidst a flutter of falling stars, a great,
hovering mouth opens and closes in repeated intonation of the "incredible"
nature of the event [FILM 7]. The solid, blocky letters of the poets stand
in bold relief below, while the moving lips and falling stars activate the
image's temporal poetics and poetic temperament. In concept, this is
relatively similar to Moscoso's final 4D poster, made in conjunction with
this 1968 touring show of the Neon Rose series, that he entitled The San
Francisco Poster 1966-1968.
FIGURE 8 - Victor Moscoso. The San Francisco Poster 1966-1968 (NR-26). ©
Victor Moscoso. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
<20> Moths flutter upward, as though emerging from a floral sea, while a
great hand hovers in the center [ FILM 8]. As the moths flap their wings,
the hand opens and closes, revealing an eyeball in the palm. The eye
stares at us persistently, despite being repeatedly covered and uncovered
by the sound of one hand clapping. It challenges us to look unflinchingly,
to stare back and take in all the seemingly improbable movement going on.
This play of time is the ultimate visual trip of the psychedelic poster -
taking it farther than the poster had ever gone before. Parting lips and
opening hands perform the visual poetry of the poster's temporal
apotheosis as it reaches the fourth dimension.
<21> Beginning again in the 1990s, Moscoso has produced additional 4D
posters, though he has not displayed them as such formally. 1997's I Want
to Take You Higher exhibit of psychedelic posters at the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame is heralded by an Anglo-American hippie butterfly semaphore
wave, while 2002's solo exhibit at San Francisco MOMA invokes the athletic
siblings of the strongmen (NR-25 and FD-66) flanking Annabelle's dancing
descendent (FD-61).[ix] Moscoso is still playing with the dimension of
time, and the time-motion effect now takes on an element of conscious
self-reference to his own pioneering temporal explorations. The modern 4D
works attest to Moscoso's awareness of the importance of his experimental
4D poster legacy, even if this message has up to now been largely lost on
the majority of viewers.
<22> Equally important as the poster design itself was the creation of a
means to successfully show it in all its kinetic glory. It was not just a
question of how to make them, but also how to let people see them "at
work." The happy accident of Hesseman's hallway lights would be cumbersome
to reproduce. Moscoso devised a light-box - essentially a tri-color strobe
- to allow the motion to be regularized and its effects maximized. It was
used with several of the 4D posters in his 1968 Neon Rose touring show. As
such, the only time these were seen under "proper" lighting conditions was
in the context of an art exhibit, and a relatively short-lived one at
that. This left most people to baffle their way through these posters'
visual invitation by perhaps wearing 3D movie glasses while blinking
rapidly, as suggested at the bottom of Moscoso's final 4D poster (NR-26).
Perhaps in an effort to help struggling viewers see the motion, the poster
reports that "This poster will appear to move. In a dark room flash red
then blue light. In light room blink left-right through red-green (3-D)
glasses." Despite the limited number of light-boxes made, Moscoso clearly
wanted people to notice the posters' four-dimensional qualities.
Similarly, a "Dance" poster from 1967 by Terre Art Studios in San
Francisco explains at the bottom how to best view the red-and-blue
overprinted bell-wielding dancing woman - "Use red and blue alternately
flashing lights for a full animated effect - or use glasses with red/blue
lenses."
FIGURE 9 - Terre Art Studios, San Francisco. Dance. 1967.
<23> Clearly the idea was in the air, but Moscoso is the artist who ran
with it.
<24> In regard to the element of time, Moscoso's 4D posters constitute a
radical conceptual leap - essentially transmogrifying the poster into
something that essentially transcends its traditional self - a psychedelic
apotheosis of the poster as a temporal means of visual communication. When
viewed under the requisite lighting conditions, they become like flip
books fed through a loop so that they remain in a state of perpetual
motion. Time is simultaneously presented as both demonstrably linear and
confoundingly circular. Ultimately, the posters become about time as much
as about anything else, particularly since they are often difficult to
read under the shifting lights. After even a few seconds of staring at the
moving images, one cannot help but be hypnotized by the ritualized,
ceaseless repetition of motion - like a visual mantra, endlessly repeating
a pattern of movement that is simultaneously engaged in the performance
and suspension of time. As such, they become mandalas for a sort of
psychedelic visual meditation, challenging one to travel from fascination
through dizziness toward an almost meditative calm, as the action
continues around and around in a constant and continuous cycle, back and
forth through time (like a ritualized or meditative repetition). In
zoning-out, one might Zen-out as well. Perhaps this takes the poster (or
at least its viewer) into the fifth dimension […].
<25> The point of many a psychedelic poster is to play with the mind and
the mind's eye - to confound cognition of what the eye sees. But Moscoso's
posters are exceptional in the manner in which they play with the eye's
mind. Here it is less what one sees, but how one actually sees it that is
new and "psychedelic." The imagery and "narratives" are relatively simple
and easy to discern. Unique here is the actual filmic characteristic of
the posters. Like film, Moscoso's 4D posters are two-dimensional works
whose essence is performed in the fourth dimension. They are both
adamantly and integrally temporal works of art, without any stopover in
the spatial third dimension. But, film must physically move through a
projector in order to demonstrate motion. Traditionally, the poster is
stationary and not physically "time-sensitive." But, Moscoso's 4D posters
are sensitive to time. As posters, they do so without themselves moving,
but rather through the manipulation of the perception of the images
through changing external factors, in this case the lighting
configuration. Moscoso's 4D posters are unique in that they are fully
conceived and produced with the exact four-dimensional operation not only
in mind, but inscribed within the object of the poster itself. Yet, they
remain decidedly posters - two-dimensional works of graphic art on paper.
Unlike a spooling film reel, a poster does not physically move. But for
the changing of a non-material extrinsic factor - lighting - the poster
performs its temporal exploration entirely within its surface composition.
A truly four-dimensional poster - one that is both sculptural and kinetic
- would become something that can no longer be termed a poster. This being
the case, it would be difficult to conceive of a bolder and more
successful conquest of time than was achieved in Victor Moscoso's 4D
designs which take the poster on its wildest trip of all - the trip
through time.
<26> Within the growing body of publication on psychedelic (and Rock)
posters, Moscoso's experiments in motion have generally gone un-
acknowledged. [x] Equally, these posters have gone unmentioned within the
substantial body of scholarship on light art and kinetic art.[xi] Despite
their unquestionable importance in the experimental evolution of poster
art (and graphic design in general), their marvelous moving nature has
only recently been noted, or perhaps even realized. This is largely due to
the very specific lighting conditions under which the posters appear to
move and the fact that they have rarely been displayed under these
requisite conditions. The lighting has been difficult to reproduce, as
only one original lightbox is known to have survived the last half-
century…and it is broken. [xii] As a result, few people have seen these
posters perform time in all their glorious four-dimensional poetics.
Without this lighting, the posters' true nature and importance cannot be
(and has not been) fully understood. For this reason, these posters - the
culmination of the psychedelic poster's ethos of experimentation and
transcending expectation - have not been suitably appreciated. But how
could they, if they have seldom been publicly visible under optimal
lighting and have not been thus documented in film? Scholars, collectors,
and aficionados are exonerated for oversight of something that was never
in sight. These posters have only been known and accessible through
photographs, which do not reveal the sense of motion or time. Indeed,
photographs reduce the impact of the images, making some of the posters
appear somewhat heavy-handed experiments in overprinting. Only through
viewing them first-hand in real-time or watching the motion captured in
archived film can one truly grasp these posters for what they are -
artistic explorations of time.
<27> It is no accident that the two published references to this
phenomenon both appeared recently, in the aftermath of one of the few
public displays of some of the posters under moving lighting conditions
since the 1960s.[xiii] The Denver Art Museum's sumptuous exhibition The
Psychedelic Experience: Rock Posters from the San Francisco Bay Area 1965-
71 (March 21 - July 26, 2009) proved to be a watershed moment in the study
of these time-shifting posters.[xiv] In a brilliant curatorial decision,
three of them (NR-23, 24, 26) were shown under the lighting conditions
(back-produced from the surviving original light-box). Hands, lips, and
wings were visually activated in public for one of the first times in
decades, allowing viewers to marvel at Moscoso's bold temporal
experiments. This opportunity was, unfortunately, somewhat mitigated by
the placement of the posters in a small alcove to the side near the exit
that was easily missed by the overwhelming majority of visitors
overwhelmed by the exhibition's visual overload. It was enough, however,
to bring these posters' dynamism to my attention, among others. As Moscoso
notes, "not too many people are hip to that."[xv] However, several of
Moscoso's 4D posters had already been ingeniously installed in D. Scott
Atkinson's exhibit High Societies. Psychedelic Rock Posters of Haight-
Ashbury at the San Diego Museum of Art (May 26-August 12,
2001).[xvi] Displayed in shallow alcoves, the posters were lit with
alternating red-blue lights, but the source of the changing lights was not
visible - only the moving posters. They appeared to move without the cause
of their movement being apparent. Moscoso particularly enjoyed this
installation of the posters because it added the element of surprise. He
recalls watching a woman silently mouth "Oh my God!" when she rounded the
corner and first saw the posters moving. "It caught people by surprise. I
blew their minds." [xvii]
<28> Due to their unacknowledged historical significance, and the
infrequency of their display, it seemed imperative to demonstrate their
temporal qualities in an exhibition focusing on the artistic achievement
and importance of this psychedelic poster movement. Visual Trips: The
Psychedelic Poster Movement in San Francisco,at the Vicki Myhren Gallery,
University of Denver (October 3-November 16, 2014) was perhaps the first
exhibit to adamantly highlight the 4D posters' significance.[xviii] As
confirmed by Moscoso in an April 2014 conversation, Visual Trips was
likely the first time ever that all of his original 4D posters were
exhibited under their animating lighting conditions. In conceiving and
curating Visual Trips, I determined from the very beginning that Moscoso's
four-dimensional posters should serve as the exhibit's centerpiece. This
decision posed a series of practical challenges - not the least of which
was back-producing the exact particulars of the requisite lighting
conditions to make the posters "dance." Fortunately, Dan Jacobs (Director
of the Vicki Myhren Gallery) was enthusiastic about the idea, and
technical wizard Kelly Flemister was able to create the effect using timed
LED lights. This was far preferable to an unwieldy light wheel using
colored gels. Necessary to the process, blue LED lights had proven to be
the most difficult to master, and had only been successfully developed in
recent years. In felicitous synchronicity, while Visual Trips was on
display at the Vicki Myhren Gallery, Shuji Nakamura, Isamu Akasaki,
and Hiroshi Amano were awarded the 2014 Nobel prize in physics for the
invention of the blue LED. Without this development, Kelly would not have
been able to produce the lighting necessary to illuminate Annabelle's
butterfly dance.
<29> The initial idea for the Visual Trips exhibition was to organize it
around a central "black box" room in which the 4D posters would be
displayed under proper lighting. While spatially asserting their central
importance, this arrangement, however, would have made it easier to miss
these posters, as one could simply walk past the room without entering.
So, I opted to situate them in an un-avoidable location where they could
not be missed or bypassed. Not merely showing the posters, we forced
attendees to see them by placing them along either side of the hallway
through which visitors exited the exhibit [FILM 9 and FILM 10]. As such,
they were the physical and conceptual culmination of the exhibition's
articulation of the artistry of this psychedelic poster movement. One
couldn't miss them. Additionally, this "way out" way out of the show
contextualized one of the first posters seen in the exhibit -
Moscoso's Joint Show poster (NR-25) in the opening section outlining the
artists' elevated artistic aspirations. When initially seen by visitors,
this poster appeared as a tame experiment in overprinting. But, upon
exiting the 4D section of the exhibit, it was directly visible again, now
even more contextualized within the larger ethos of artistic
experimentation, particularly Moscoso's dramatic exploration of posters'
temporal potential.
<30> The fact that the 4D section was consistently praised as a
"revelation" and a highlight of the exhibition demonstrates the importance
of displaying these posters in their intended lighting conditions. Only
upon seeing the posters move in real time, were visitors able to fully
grasp their bold, experimental nature. And grasp it they did! They also
gasped, gawked, and grinned. Popular praise by attendees and the news
media alike regularly highlighted the "trippy" moving poster group as one
of the real standout features. Of course it was! Not only are the 4D
posters striking, but almost no one had seen them before. Nearly fifty
years after their creation, they were still something "new" to multiple
generations of gallery attendees. Demonstrating this phenomenon was among
the major contributions of the Visual Trips exhibition. Considering the
widespread "wow" factor prompted by these posters in 2014 - almost half a
century after their creation - it is striking just how "forward" Moscoso's
experiments actually were at the time. Taking posters to a new frontier,
transcending their two-dimensional poster-ness, Moscoso's 4D designs
crossed over, beyond the confines of traditional graphic art. Where could
it go from here? Perhaps this helped point to digital as the next
frontier…onward toward new artistic and conceptual horizons…the very
spirit and essence of psychedelia.
<31> In keeping with the embrace of play, experimentation, and discovery
that marked the advent of the 4D poster with Anabelle's butterfly dance,
the sense of surprise and accidental revelation accompanied us in the
preparation of the Visual Trips exhibit. Once we had the lighting
developed, like kids in a candy store, the gallery staff and I set out to
explore what other surprises might emerge from testing various other
posters under the lights. Though not designed to "move" under this
lighting, some posters did demonstrate very interesting and dramatic
visual shifts as the lights alternately cancelled and revealed different
colors and forms. Among the more deliciously shifting images thus
discovered were Moscoso's 1967 "Death and Transfiguration" poster for
Webb's in Stockton (NR-13) and his 1969 KMPX design (NR-20), both of which
performed remarkable changes under these lighting conditions. The most
felicitous example was a unique overprint of two of Moscoso's poster
designs from early 1967 (NR-2 and NR-10). The product of the general ethos
of experimenting with overprinting, not unlike the original use of
Annabelle, the double image provides a dense visual beat. Numerous
uniquely overprinted posters with deeply psychedelic ineffability were
also made at the time by the East Totem West Company. [xix] While the
overlay of NR-2's dancing woman and NR-10's perspectival portals was
interesting in its visual instability, we were not prepared for the
dramatic transformation of the poster under the shifting lighting [FILM
11]. With their oppositional coloration, the two poster designs
alternately emerged and receded, creating a dynamic, strobic, almost
cinematic beat between the two images dancing in-and-out of view…over and
over again. Though not intentional, the effect was similar to that
intentionally fashioned with the 4D posters. Emphasizing this sense of
play and possibility, we opted to include this overprint in the
exhibition's 4D section near its butterfly-dancing sibling. The happy
accidental discovery of Annabelle's flight, and Moscoso's intentional
development of this potential for movement in posters, inspired our own
intentional (if spontaneous) exploration of further accidental
possibilities.
<32> During the Visual Trips exhibit, the 4D section was frequently filmed
on peoples' i-phones, creating some of the first visual records of the
posters dancing, flapping, waving, and causing general visual mayhem. But
such films are generally not available for public access, until
individuals upload their shaky footage to Youtube, Facebook or other
social media. But these posters deserve to be displayed properly in all
their kinetic glory. This underscores the importance of digital archiving
of these posters' movement, since the lighting conditions are no longer
available now that Visual Trips has closed. We thus deemed it necessary to
film the ephemeral effects of the posters "moving" under their intended
lighting. This documenting, archiving, and sharing serves not only to
record and preserve, but perhaps more importantly, to open up Moscoso's
experimental posters to greater study and appreciation, allowing them to
assume their rightful place in the history of experimental graphic design.
The publication of this article prompted me to make available on YouTube
some of this archival film shot during Visual Trips. Only with such
digital archiving and publishing can the full importance of these posters
be made readily apparent to scholars and the public alike - finally
enabling legitimate scholarly analysis of these radical experiments in
graphic art and design - the ultimate transcendence of the poster's
identity and function beyond advertising and into the realms of art and
poetry.
<33> In April 2014, I asked Moscoso about his conception of the 4D
posters. He responded animatedly, "Just this week someone (I cannot recall
who) noted the four-dimensional effect of the posters. And now you - the
second time this week. And all the years prior I never heard anyone say
this. I've known it all along."[xx] Now, we can all know it and can see it
all - dancing, flapping wings and hands, and incredible visual poetry in
motion.
All FILMS: Video by Kelly Flemister. 2014. Courtesy of the Vicki Myhren
Gallery, University of Denver.
FIGURE 1 and FILM 1 - Victor Moscoso. The Doors, The Sparrow. May 12-13,
1967. Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (FD-61).
FIGURE 2 and FILM 2 - Victor Moscoso. Youngbloods, Siegal Schwall Band.
June 15-18, 1967. Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (FD-66).
FIGURE 3 and FILM 3- Victor Moscoso. Joint Show. July 1967. Moore Gallery,
San Francisco (NR-25).
FIGURE 4 and FILM 4 - Victor Moscoso. The Who, Peter Green's Fleetwood
Mac, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. June 28-29, 1968. Shrine Auditorium,
Los Angeles (AOR. 3.75).
FIGURE 5 and FILM 5 - Victor Moscoso. The Steve Miller Band Children of
the Future promo. 1968 (NR-23).
FIGURE 6 and FILM 6 - Victor Moscoso. Pablo Ferro Films. 1968 (NR-22).
FIGURE 7 and FILM 7 - Victor Moscoso. Incredible Poetry Reading. June 8,
1968. Nourse Auditorium, San Francisco (NR-24).
FIGURE 8 and FILM 8 - Victor Moscoso. The San Francisco Poster 1966-
1968 (NR-26).
FIGURE 9 - Terre Art Studios, San Francisco. Dance. 1967.
FILM 9 - Visual Trips - left wall of 4D section. Vicki Myhren Gallery,
University of Denver.
FILM 10 - Visual Trips - right wall of 4D section. Vicki Myhren Gallery,
University of Denver.
FILM 11 - Victor Moscoso. Overprint of NR-2 and NR-10.
Notes
* First and foremost, thanks to Victor Moscoso for generously sharing his
information and insight. Much of this formulated during the process of
putting together and exploring the Visual Trips exhibit in 2014. There are
a number of institutions and individuals without whose knowledge,
assistance, kindness, and wisdom, neither the exhibit nor this article
would have transitioned from idea to actuality. In particular, I thank the
University of Denver, the School of Art and Art History, the Vicki Myhren
Gallery, Dan Jacobs, Sabena Kull, Nessa Kerr, and the student staff of the
VMG, Paul Harbaugh, David Tippit, Mike Storeim, Bob Carlsen, Al Bauer,
Sonja Briney, Toby and Dave Montgomery, and Alice Bauer. Multi-colored
accolades to Kelly Flemister for her peerless lighting expertise and
dauntless experimentation that allowed us to recreate the lighting
conditions. I thank Scott Howard for his thoughtful, gracious, and patient
editorial excellence. Thanks Alice, Francesca, Gabriella, and Serafina for
being my four dimensions.
[i] Popular slogan of the late 1960s, popularized by acid guru Timothy
Leary in 1966 and opening lyrics to The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" (
Revolver LP. Released August 1966).
[ii] Wes Wilson. Trips Festival handbill. January 21-23, 1966.
Longshoremen's Hall, San Francisco.
[iii] Telephone conversation April 30, 2014.
[iv] Note on the poster numbering. FD refers to the Family Dog series of
concert posters for the Avalon Ballroom and NR refers to Moscoso's Neon
Rose series.
[v] Telephone conversation April 30, 2014.
[vi] For the film, see: https://www.youtube.com/
[vii] Telephone conversation April 30, 2014.
[viii] Telephone conversation April 30, 2014. Hesseman and Moscoso's
initial conversation must have been mid-to-late May 1967. FD-61 is for
shows May 12-13 and the next 4D poster (FD-66) is for concerts June 15-18.
Howard Hesseman is an actor who is perhaps best known for his role as DJ
Dr. Johnny Fever in the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati that ran from 1978-1982.
Hesseman had worked as a real DJ for legendary "hip" radio station KMPX in
San Francisco, for which Moscoso designed an excellent poster in 1969 [NR-
20).
[ix] Victor Moscoso, Sex, Rock & Optical Illusions. Victor Moscoso. Master
of Psychedelic Posters & Comix(Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2005), pp.
130, 133.
[x] Among the more substantive publications on psychedelic posters, see:
Walter Patrick Medeiros, San Francisco Rock Poster Art: A Catalog for the
October 6-November 21, 1976 Exhibition (San Francisco: The Museum of
Modern Art, 1976); Eric King, The Collector's Guide to Psychedelic Rock
Posters, Postcards and Handbills 1965-1973(Berkeley: NP, 1980 with
numerous updates); Paul D. Grushkin, The Art of Rock. Posters from Presley
to Punk(New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1987); Gayle Lemke,The Art
of the Fillmore 1966-1971 (New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1999); Ted
Owen and Denise Dickson,High Art. A History of the Psychedelic
Poster(London: Sanctuary Publishing Limited, 1999); Sally Tomlinson and
Walter Medeiros, High Societies. Psychedelic Rock Posters of Haight-
Asbury (San Diego: San Diego Museum of Art, 2001); Kevin Moist - "Dayglo
Koans and Spiritual Renewal: 1960s Psychedelic Rock Concert Posters and
the Broadening of American Spirituality"Journal of Religion and Popular
Culture, VII (Summer 2004), 30 pages np; Amélie Gastaut and Jean-Pierre
Criqui, Off the Wall. Psychedelic Rock Posters from San Francisco (London:
Thames and Hudson, 2005); David H. Tippit, "The 1960s American Psychedelic
Poster", in: The Pope Smoked Dope. Rocková hudba a alternativní vizuální
kultura 60. let ( Rock Music and the Alternative Visual Culture of the
1960s), Zdenek Primus, ed., (Prague: Galerie hlavního mĕsta Prahy, 2005),
36-49; Sally Tomlinson, "Sign Language: Formulating a Psychedelic
Vernacular in Sixties' Poster Art", in: Christoph Grunenberg, ed., Summer
of Love. Art of the Psychedelic Era (London: Tate Publishing, 2005), 121-
143;Victoria A. Binder, "San Francisco Rock Posters and the Art of Photo-
Offset Lithography," The Book and Paper Group Annual, 29 (2010), 5-14;
Kevin M. Moist, "Visualizing Postmodernity: 1960s Rock Concert Posters and
Contemporary American Culture, The Journal of Popular Culture 43/6 (Dec.
2010), 1242-1265; Phil Cushway, The Art of the Dead (Berkeley: Soft Skull
Press, 2011); David H. Tippit, "A Social History of the American
Psychedelic Poster" and Scott B. Montgomery, "Psychedelic Rock Poster Art
in San Francisco: Aesthetic Concepts and Characteristics" ("A
pszichedelikus rock plakátművészete San Fransicóban: esztétikai
konceptciók és jellemzők," translated by Mihály Árpád) both in: San
Franciscótól Woodstockig. Az amerikai rockplakát aranykora 1965-1971 (
From San Francisco to Woodstock. The Golden Age of American Rock Posters
1965-1971) (Budapest: Kogart Kiállítások, 2011), 40-66, 100-165; Scott B.
Montgomery, "Signifying the Ineffable: Rock Poster Art and Psychedelic
Counterculture in San Francisco" in: West of Center: Art and the
Counterculture Experiment in American Art, 1965-1977, Elissa Auther and
Adam Lerner, eds. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012), 574-
610.
[xi] Even Edward Shanken's magisterial Art and Electronic Media (London:
Phaidon Press, 2009, 2011, 2014), while sensitive to the significance of
the San Francisco experiments with light art, omits Moscoso's posters.
See, esp. pp. 16ff. Otherwise thorough and thoughtful, Shanken cannot be
held accountable for overlooking material that was not available.
[xii] David Tippit personal correspondence.
[xiii] The element of movement and time is addressed by both Tippit, 2011,
pp. 50ff and Montgomery 2011, 134ff.
[xiv] Unfortunately, no catalog or publication accompanied this exhibit.
[xv] Telephone conversation December 8, 2015.
[xvi] See: Tomlinson and Medeiros, 2001.
[xvii] Telephone conversation December 8, 2015.
[xviii] While no formal publication accompanied the exhibit, the extensive
wall and pull-out texts became the basis for an expanded analysis in the
form of my book Visual Trips, currently in the final stages of
preparation.
[xix] See: Alan Bisbort, The White Rabbit and Other Delights. East Totem
West. A Hippie Company 1967-1969 (San Francisco: Pomegranate Art Books,
1996).
[xx] Telephone conversation April 30, 2014. However, see note 13 above.