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.