Clients : Esoteri.Co Website / The Unexplained bullshit from beyond infinity Facebook Isolationist Group
Brief : Create Artwork for both the facebook banner art for 'the Mysterious Timeline of Unexplained Bullshit from Beyond Infinity' and its subsection that relates to tech and R&D posts that, whilst reading them you get the distinct impression that this was stuff you read about in British sci-fi comics back in the 80's.
Medium : Digital : Photographic retouching, illustration and Title Lettering created in Adobe Photoshop 2010 AD
Design Notes : Oddly enough, the art work started life as concept poster art for Gravy, a failed film production from Grogan Films that never quite got its head above water John Jarratt (Wolf Creek, Picnic at hanging rock) was quoted @ FANGORIA.COM as having 3 films 'on the go': GRAVY, a mad contemporary comedy; being one of them) and then again in 2008 with the hilarious Heartbreak Motel :) featuring Matt Bissett-Johnson as The John, Darren Casey as The Hard Man and Mark Lycette as "little Lord Fauntleroy"

Additional Notes : the Artwork features a species of psychoactive toad (Bufo marinus) renowned in Australia as a devastating introduced pest, the Cane Toad, alias the Giant Neotropical Toad, Dominican Toad or the Giant Marine Toad, In Trinidadian its commonly called Crapaud. Bufotenin--5-hydroxy-dimethyltryptamine (5-HO-DMT or 5-OH-DMT), one of the chemicals excreted by the cane toad, is classified as a Class 1 drug under the Criminal Code Regulations of the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia, alongside heroin and cannabis (which is stupid -- nobody has ODed on delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, but I digress). The effects of bufotenin are similar to that of mild poisoning; the stimulation, which includes mild hallucinations, is only supposed to last under an hour...only.

Back In 1955, Howard D. Fabing & J. Robert Hawkins administered 5-hydroxy-dimethyltryptamine intravenously @ doses of up to 16 mg to prison inmates at Ohio State Penitentiary (Conditions in the prison have been described as "primitive") . A purpling of the face was seen in these tests attributed to toxic blood circulation. One subject given 1 mg reported "a tight feeling in the chest" and prickling "as if he had been jabbed by needles." This was accompanied by a "fleeting sensation of pain in both thighs and a mild nausea." Another subject given 2 mg reported "tightness in his throat". He had tightness in the stomach, tingling in pretibial areas, and developed a purplish hue in the face indicating blood circulation problems. He vomited after 3 minutes. Another subject given 4 mg complained of "chest oppression" and that "a load is pressing down from above and my body feels heavy." The subject also reported "numbness of the entire body" and "a pleasant Martini feeling-my body is taking charge of my mind". The subject reported he saw red spots passing before his eyes and red-purple spots on the floor, and the floor seemed very close to his face. Within 2 minutes these visual effects were gone, and replaced by a yellow haze, as if he were looking through a lens filter. Fabing and Hawkins commented that bufotenin's psychedelic effects were "reminiscent of LSD and mescaline but develop and disappear more quickly, indicating rapid central action and rapid degradation of the drug". Source: Science 18 May 1956: Vol. 123 no. 3203 pp. 886-887 DOI: 10.1126/science.123.3203.886