Sci-Fi-O-Rama

I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World (2)

Sep 26th, 2010 | Categories: Fashion | Graphics | Illustration | Military / War | Sci-Fi | Weird

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Once again, sorry for the brief pause in posting, I don’t know whether anyone’s noticed (I hadn’t till recently!) but Sci-Fi-O-Rama is about to reach 300th posts – thanks for all the support so far! Too mark this cyber milestone I have something pretty special planned – more on this very soon…

In the meantime lets shift the focus of this 299th post back to the comically surreal world of US Black Ops patch art, all images are scanned from Trevor Paglen’s excellent book “I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World” which turned up in the post the other day.

Here then are my notes:

Top: First up is the wonderfully sinister “Global Engagement – Military Spaceplane Technology Program”.

The source of this patch is the Philips Laboratory Military Spaceplane Technology Program (MiST) at Kirtland airbase New Mexico. Interesting too note here that the swooping X-Wing derived craft was in fact deemed too derivative and in stepped George Lucas’s army of lawyers with a cease and desist order! The patch you see here is an updated version featuring a modified craft, these modifications presumably include shoving the the cockpit down the nose cone and fitting a cosmic cow catcher to the front.

2nd Top: “Pete’s Dragon II”

This evil looking little creature sits on a commemorative patch apparently worn by Stealth Fighter Test Pilot Pete Barnes during secret flight tests in the mid eighties. The design is based on the 1977 Disney film Pete’s Dragon which follows the story of a green dragon named Elliot who was invisible to every one except a boy named Pete…

3rd Top: “Procul Este Profani – Special Projects”

More dragon action here with this snarling variant gleefully ripping through a thundercloud. This macho patch is from the 416th Flight Test Specials Projects flight working on advanced technologies for the F16 combined Test Force situated at Edwards Air Force Base. Members of the unit translate the latin phrase as “Keep your distance, you who are uninitiated”

Bottom: “National Reconnaissance Office – Snakes”

3 Cobras writhe and encircle our planet, more super menacing stuff from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Trevor Paglen notes that this patch’s origin is entirely obscure, perhaps the Latin phrase might give a clue which translates as “Never Before, Never Again” – maybe something to do with an missile early warning system? Incidentally is there sexual dimorphism in Cobras? I couldn’t work out why only the centre snake has the famous flared hood.

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As with the last post for further reading and imagery check this New York Times article and interview with Trevor Paglin http://is.gd/eMcOz or visit Trevor’s home site: http://www.paglen.com/

Also as I now have a copy of “I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World”  I highly recommend purchasing a copy yourself via Amazon, here’s a link: http://is.gd/eMdbl

And here’s a link to the prior post…

I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World

Aug 30th, 2010 | Categories: Graphics | Illustration | Military / War | Sci-Fi | Weird

Minotaur Lockheed Martin Advanced Developement Programs

NRO We Own The Night

Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile

B2 Stealth Bomber To Serve Man

Behind The Green Door Patch

Something slightly different – and frankly bizarre! – obscure US Military Patch graphics. I first tagged this set a while back (2008) but only just rediscovered whilst mining through the ever increasing stack of Sci-Fi-O-Rama resource bookmarks!

What we have here then are six samples or military shoulder/pocket patches taken from “I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World” (published Melville House Dec 2007) a compendium of rarely seen “Black Ops” Military Unit/Projects memorabilia researched and compiled by American Artist’s Trevor Paglen. What constitutes a Black Ops Project then? well basically it’s any classified US military research project veiled in secrecy that quietly guzzle funds from the federal budget. Examples of Black Ops which have trans-located into the public domain include the F-117 Stealth Fighter or the B2 Stealth Bomber and those projects that don’t and remain forever shrouded? well it’s a conspiracy theorists wet dream isn’t it…

I’ve always been a fan of embroidered sew on patches be they Military, Space, Movie or otherwise (having assembled small collection via ebay) anyway this set with it’s extremely weird mix of cartoon visuals, Sci-Fi, the Occult and sinister cryptic slogans pretty much blows any other patch art into oblivion…

Here’s the notes then for the chosen images:

Top: National Reconnaissance Office Dragon Path – This patch is one of Trevor Paglen’s absolute favourites, and it’s not hard to see why! The whole visual concept – the green dragon holding the world in its clutches, American flag wings, and its tail wrapped around a diamond – is extremely sinister, and screams “Imperialism/New World Order/Illuminati” well at least that’s my half-baked conjecture!. The actual source of the patch apparently has something to do with a classified Satellite (probably signals-intelligence) launched into a geosynchronous orbit in 2003…

2nd Top: This one’s definitely my favourite – wicked design – Minotaur is a still-classified program undertaken by Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs division, the Skunk Works.

3rd Top:“We Own The Night” – This patch commemorates the August 17, 2000, launch of a “classified National Reconnaissance Office payload” atop a Titan IV rocket.

4th Top: The Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile was a classified cruise missile symbolized by the Tasmanian Devil. The acronym Tssam recalled the cartoon character.

5th Top: The classic ‘Grey’ alien with a B-2 bomber in it’s clutches, the slogan “To Serve Man” apparently a reference to a classic Twilight Zone episode… The 509th Bomb Wing flew B-2 stealth bomber test flights, and used to be based at Roswell, N.M., home of the notorious ‘Roswell Incident‘.

Bottom: This one with it’s glowing eyed green wizard creature remains something of an enigma, Trevor notes: The origins of this patch remain unknown. The red star is in Southwest, which is many secret units’ home, while military intelligence typically uses green vaults.

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For further reading and imagery check this New York Times article and interview with Trevor Paglin http://is.gd/eMcOz or visit Trevor’s home site: http://www.paglen.com/

Also you can buy a copy of “I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World” starting from via Amazon, here’s a link: http://is.gd/eMdbl

And finally for more Secretive Military patch design inspiration check out this site: http://www.u2sr71patches.co.uk/area51.htm

Brecht Vandenbroucke – Polar Expedition

Mar 22nd, 2010 | Categories: Horror | Illustration | Sci-Fi | Weird

Brecht Vandenbroucke - Polar Expedition

A polar expedition about to be ruined (in a big way) by a bizarrely crowned, giant furry humanoid…

This is the work of zany Belgian Illustrator Brecht Vandenbroucke, an artist who specialises in mixing playful cartoon like, video game visuals with horror and general weirdness… Suffice to say then, that his portfolio includes some pretty far out work, definitely raises a smile for me!

To see more of Brecht’s work check his Flickr Photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/brecht_vandenbroucke/ or blog http://brechtvandenbroucke.blogspot.com/

Shobo Shobo (1)

Sep 12th, 2009 | Categories: Fashion | Graphics | Horror | Illustration | Sci-Fi | Weird

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Shobo Shobo

Shobo Shobo

Here’s something a little out there to say the least!

Super freaky sweatshirt designs adorned with completely over the top 8-Bit coloured, LSD tinged, David Shrigley-esque drawings – a quick taster of the work of Parisian collective Shobo Shobo… Love all the primitivism and neon/mettalic colours, Great stuff! there’s a real art to styling something this outrageous!

Shobo Shobo make drawings, art work, installations and fashion and is the brainchild of Mehdi Hercberg and Kanh Linh La. Check out more of their Fashion at: http://grogore.free.fr/accueil/accueil_set.htm or visit the main site: http://www.shoboshobo.com/

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