Born on October 22nd, 1920, legendary psychedelic pop culture populist Dr. Timothy Leary would have been 90 years old this year. Leary’s pioneering work on the beneficial effects of psychoactive drugs was swamped by a conservative current of fear and paranoia from above: Richard Nixon famously declared him to be “the most dangerous man in America.” Turn on, tune in, drop out… and check out Timothy Leary in words and art. The doctor is IN!

Tuning In

(images via: Thecant, Britannica.com and The Tribune)

Though he famously exhorted America’s youth to drop out, Timothy Francis Leary himself did anything but. Beginning with a stint as a cadet at West Point in 1940, Leary attended a variety of colleges and universities ending in 1950 with his receiving a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.

(image via: Madame Pickwick Art Blog)

Leary’s education was interrupted by service in World War II, when was a sergeant in the Medical Corps. Not exactly the resume one would expect from a counterculture icon but many facts about Timothy Leary’s life defied easy or logical categorization. On the other hand, Leary was forced to resign from West Point after he was found to have gotten drunk on whiskey and then lied about it, thus breaking the institution’s honor code. Leary later declared that his court-martial was “the only fair trial I’ve had in a court of law”.

(images via: The Daily Beast and Book Soup)

Post-graduation, Leary’s career rapidly progressed. He was an assistant professor at Berkeley from 1950 to 1955, then moved on to become the director of psychiatric research at the Kaiser Family Foundation until 1958.

(image via: This Day In Quotes)

Leary finally found his footing in 1959 at Harvard University, where he lectured in psychology and introduced new treatment concepts revolving around the use of psychoactive substances and compounds, many of which were legal in the early 1960s. Leary soon moved from theoretical discussion to the practical use of psychedelic drugs, which resulted in his being fired by Harvard’s management in 1963.

Turning On

(images via: Motifake and EZZAL)

Let’s take a small step back. In the summer of 1960, Leary journeyed to Mexico and tried psilocybin mushrooms for the first time. Leary later remarked that he “learned more about the brain and its possibilities, and more about psychology, in the five hours after taking these mushrooms than in the preceding 15 years of studying and doing research in psychology.”

(images via: Dangerous Minds and Telegraph UK)

Upon his return from Mexico, Leary initiated the Harvard Psilocybin Project, a research program intended to analyze and document the effects of synthetic psilocybin on human subjects who ranged from prisoners to seminary students. The most tantalizing results came from The Concord Prison Experiment, which monitored the progress of prisoners treated with psychoactive drugs once they were released back into society.

(images via: Lysergia and Technoccult)

Leary’s subjects received a combination of drug therapy directly supervised by Leary combined with social support modeled after the system used by Alcoholics Anonymous. At that time, the rate of recidivism (return to a criminal lifestyle) among U.S. prisoners was 60 percent. Prisoners who underwent Leary’s therapy recorded a much lower recidivism rate of just 20 percent, declaring that they had received a new understanding of their purpose in life.

(images via: Crucify The Ego, Home in the Holler and Wilson’s Almanac)

One can well imagine how society would have benefited if Leary’s therapy had been instituted as a standard treatment, but alas it was not to be. In 1963 the FDA and DEA began severely restricting the medical and scientific use of psychoactive drugs, regardless of their perceived benefits, and within 5 years possession of even small amounts of psychoactive drugs could (and did) result in the accused doing substantial prison time.

Dropping Out

(images via: Ian C Friedman and 60’s Further)

Booted out of Harvard and deprived of both salary and funding, Leary and his associates were given the use of a mansion in Millbrook, New York, by several heirs to the wealthy Mellon family who encouraged Leary to continue his experiments. “We saw ourselves as anthropologists from the twenty-first century inhabiting a time module set somewhere in the dark ages of the 1960s,” said Leary on the Millbrook years. “On this space colony we were attempting to create a new paganism and a new dedication to life as art.”

(images via: Step Off and Bruce Eisner’s Vision Thing)

The Millbrook mansion was continually raided by various law enforcement agencies including the local police under the impetus of district attorney G. Gordon Liddy, who later rose to prominence in the Watergate Scandal. A series of raids, arrests and drug busts in the late 1960s saw Leary sentenced to decades in prison – often reduced or thrown out on appeal as Leary and his lawyers would prove several of the laws used to convict him were unconstitutional.

(images via: Netting America, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and SVToday)

The early 1970s saw Leary in exile after escaping from a forestry and gardening detail at a lower security prison. He spent time in Algeria, Switzerland, Austria, Lebanon and Afghanistan before being arrested and flown back to the United States. “If he is allowed to travel freely, he will speak publicly and spread his ideas,” remarked the judge at Leary’s remand hearing. Sentenced to 95 years, Leary ended up in California’s Folsom Prison – at one point he was locked in the cell next to mass murderer Charles Manson.

Bouncing Back

(images via: YankeePhil, The Edge AM 1400 and CNET News)

In 1976, Leary was released by California Governor Jerry Brown – the same Jerry Brown now running for governor – and in 1982 began a lecture tour with former nemesis (and ex-con) G. Gordon Liddy. The tour was hugely successful and helped bring both Leary and Liddy back into the public eye. The renewed publicity also boosted sales of Leary’s autobiography, Flashbacks.

(images via: Motifake, Wilson’s Almanac and Abraxas 365)

Never a one-trick pony, Timothy Leary refused to be pigeonholed by his reputation. By the 1980s he had embraced the thought of space colonization while rejecting ecologists who, Leary said, were content to remain “in the fouled nest”. He also remained a fervent proponent of recreational drug use though he was firmly against drug abuse. One of favorite snacks was a marijuana bud covered with melted cheese on a cracker.

(image via: Corazonada)

Leary was an early exponent of virtual reality, cyberculture and the Internet, describing the latter as “the LSD of the 1990s” and he set up one of the very first websites – which is still online. He also maintained his strong interest in space exploration and was thrilled by the prospect of having his ashes shot into space. When told that the capsule containing his ashes would eventually fall from orbit and burn up in the atmosphere, Leary was enthusiastic: “Finally, I’ll be a space pioneer, and everyone will know: That will be me. I will be the light.”

Checking Out

(images via: Tau Zero, Answers.com and Lycaeum)

In early 1995, Leary was diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer. Not surprisingly, he embraced his looming death as an experience to be explored and shared. In his remaining months, weeks and days, Leary met with thousands of well-wishers, gave interviews, and renewed old friendships.

(images via: Audiovisualizers, Travelpod and Metroactive)

Some of the best known photographs and images of Leary come from this time of his life, as if the great counterculture guru had decided that life was more about giving than taking. Even as the cancer spread, diminishing his quality of life and causing him to lose weight, Leary remained open to those who sought his guidance or at least, his famously mischievous smile. The black & white photo below was taken by Michael Maloney in San Francisco, where Leary had come to promote an exhibition of LSD blotter paper art

(image via: Michael Maloney Photography)

Leary’s final journey (or at least, the prelude to it) was made into the 1996 documentary film Timothy Leary’s Dead. On May 31st, 1996, as the end quickly approached, Leary arranged for his dying moments to be videotaped for posterity and according to bedside witnesses, his last words were “Beautiful… Beautiful… Why? Why? Why? Why not?!l”

(images via: Kenny Shackleford, SharedMP3.net and Dominoes)

“Timothy Leary’s dead. No, no no no, he’s outside, looking in.” Leary was said to have liked “Legend Of A Mind”, the first song recorded for the Moody Blues’ 1968 album In Search Of The Lost Chord. Released at the height of sixties psychedelia, the song endures as a homage to the man who some say was never born, never died, just visited our planet for a while. We sure could use another visit right about now, wouldn’t you agree? Happy Birthday, good doctor!

[above: put this back in your next mass-mailed business reply envelope!]

If the comments on this article are any indicator, Shopdropping is controversial to say the least. Still, whether they amuse, inspire or disturb you, it is hard to argue with the sheer gumption and creativity behind these strange, subversive and interactive urban art projects.

Free Words is a book at the heart of a creative shopdropping art project. Over 2,500 copies of the book (clearly labeled as free) have been distributed in bookstores and libraries around the world just waiting to be picked up. And the content? Free Words contains 13,000 meticulously compiled words that are free to use and in the public domain.

The Droplift Project came about as an attempt to subvert, undermine or circumvent the mainstream exclusive music industry. They create their own CDs from found sounds and sprinkle them “among the established pop hits and top 40 products” to be bought by unsuspecting customers. Who profits? Well, the buyer is exposed to new music and ideas, the seller gets to profit and the composer leaps into the living rooms of new listeners. Is it illegal? “Depends on who you ask. We know we are protected by the First Amendment and the Fair Use clause of the Copyright Act.”

Zoe Saldana has put a great deal of effort into an art project that the future owners of will never appreciate. Wait, how does that work? Well, she buys items from Walmart and carefully replicates them by hand down to the pattern, fabric and embellishments. She then swaps her handmade creations for the one she purchased, adds the original tags and ‘returns’ them to Walmart for future sale. Above on the left are images of the originals, and the photographs on the right show the returned duplicates.

The Barbie Liberation Project is a droplifting project that dates back to the doll-and-action-figure boom of the 1980s. “Taking advantage of similarities in the voice hardware of Teen Talk Barbie and the Talking Duke G.I. Joe doll, er, ‘action figure,’ they absconded with several hundred of each and performed a stereotype-change operation on the lot” before returning them to the shelves. The result? G.I. Joes planning dream weddings and Barbies yelling war cries.

Packard Jennings and his cohorts have arguably done more creative shopdropping projects than virtually any of their contemporaries. He puts his political and economic views on the line through interactive subvertising and encourages others to do the same, allowing people to print out and participate in spreading his ideas if they so choose.

Previously: Beginner’s Guide to Shopdropping

The subject of graffiti often brings out strongly polarized reactions from urban dwellers, who either support it as art or criticize it as vandalism. Brandon Baunach of DesignCrack has developed a project based on an idea of Drew Heffron that has amazingly drawn both fire and criticism from both sides: Graffiti Report Card stickers for rating urban street graffiti.

Some taggers have expressed annoyance at the notion of having their work judged while other graffiti critics see this project as just another layer of vandalism. Still, the project has merits and raises interesting questions both parties seem to overlook. First, there is an element of playful humor that graffiti artists should appreciate, a meta-commentary worthy of political graffiti artists like Banksy. Second, if a graffiti artist can claim the right to decorate a public surface one way, how can they expect to deny the public the right to add to their public composition?

Finally, street graffiti is a fact of urban life and many of us would like to see it more frequently discussed one way or another. By way of comparison: consider the video above. How is it that some people can tolerate thousands of flashy, obnoxious and jarring commercials that bombard us on a daily basis and yet are disturbed by graffiti? Taken together, a graffiti report card or a subvertising project like the one shown above are, if nothing else, valuable reminders to always be critical of the visual character of the build environment we live in.

From The Secret Art of Graffiti Removal group on Flickr

Most would argue that graffiti removal is at best the elimination of vandalism or at worst the destruction of art, right? One award-winning film argues something quite different: that graffiti removal is the ultimate next step in the progression of modern art. Despite its semi-satirical intent, The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal raises many provocative questions and is an oddly compelling look at what might be the most overlooked art of our time. A closer look at the film reveals some surprising and strange realities regarding the art of graffiti removal.


Example from the Symmetrical subcategory of graffiti removal art

The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal overtly follows the dull task of removing graffiti from public property and analyzes the resulting patchworks of paint. Regine of WMMNA summarizes: “the movie humourously compares city workers’ job to pain over existing graffiti to the works of abstract masters such as Mark Rothko, Kazimir Malevich and Robert Rauschenberg, dividing removal works into subcategories such as ghosting, symmetrical, and radical.” The result? A surprisingly convincing argument for graffiti removal as art, though reminiscent of humorous artworld spoofs such as animal art or child art being passed off as masterpieces.

Example from the Ghosting subcategory of graffiti removal art

Isn’t it strange the you have to pay to have a building painted, but in some places the city will paint your building for free to remove graffiti? The film’s director, Matt McCormick, claims that graffiti removal sometimes receives more funding than the arts. If you accept his premise that graffiti removal is “art,” this means that in certain locations graffiti removers are the highest paid “artists,” painting for a profit the likes of which many artists (and most graffiti artists) may never see. Though in what sense does it really make sense to call graffiti removal art? Well, whether the work is conscious or subconscious, the director also argues that graffiti removal bears striking aesthetic similarities to “abstract expressionism, minimalism and Russian constructivism.”

Example from the Radical subcategory of graffiti removal art

A fully-fledged Flickr photography group has emerged around the film, adding even more bizarre credibility to its dubiously satirical message along with screenings and awards at film festivals around the world. So is graffiti removal really subconscious art? The definition of art is, of course, always subjective. Still, the filmmaker uses definitions of graffiti removal and subconscious art that suggest he just might be onto something: “Graffiti Removal is the act of removing tags and graffiti by painting over them and Subconscious Art is a product of artistic merit that was created without conscious artistic intentions.”

Thanks to xaotica for the tip!