First Few Mystery Objects Revealed
November 23, 2024
Since I launched my Zine Club project this past spring, I've been mailing out an edition of Mystery Objects every 2 months. The goal is to surprise people with the contents of their packages, so I try not to post any images of the Objects until after they've reached their recipients. Now that the Club has been running for a while, I can share a bit about the first few Objects I've created.
My very first Mystery Object was actually three objects - a set of stickers, based on my drawings of three "Exquisite Machines."
The second Mystery Object was a foil postcard print. The abstract designs were created digitally, and the asemic "text" captions are a fictional writing system from a world-building project I started in the quarterly e-zine that I had just published the month before, titled Self-Same Life Forms of Aritana Occ.
I liked how the silver foil came out, the way that the metallic ink protrudes slightly from the card, and how the spreading of the ink gives the lines a more liquid, blobby quality. There is a subtle gradient in the background, which I think ended up being a bit too dark to notice.
Also, I was experimenting with creating a print that was also a postcard; the other side was stamped and addressed. But the cards ended up being a bit fragile, and scuffs from passing through the mail system were very visible on the matte cardstock. In the future, if I make small printed cards, I will enclose them inside of envelopes instead of sending them out into the world naked.
The third Mystery Object was a set of 16 printed cards called The Life Cycle of Aritanian Flowers. In the accompanying info card, I suggested that these were flashcards created for students learning about the stages of growth and reproduction of a fictional type of plant found in Aritana Occ. The idea thus far with the world-building project of Aritana Occ is that it is a dimension occuped by fractal (or "self-similar") life forms. All of the images on the cards are drawings based on frames of video feedback.
I printed these cards myself, and I also cut them down and punched the rounded corners. Since I was making over 20 sets in a variety of paper colors, I ended up having to print and cut several hundred cards, and the process took a bit longer than expected. In the future, I probably won't do this again by hand, but I was pleased with how they came out. I thought that perhaps the cards could also be used for divination, and some of the recipients seemed to share that idea and took photos of them arranged in tarot-like spreads.
Addendum: visit this page to see all of the cards and find information on how to print your own deck.
The most recent Mystery Object that I sent out was manufactured using the process for creating printed circuit boards (PCBs). However, the designs on the board are entirely abstract and serve no electronic function whatsoever. As an electronic artist and tinkerer, I've come across some projects that take advantage of the medium of circuit boards as an art form, and I wanted to experiment with making something like that myself.
I was vaguely aware of the process of designing a circuit board, creating gerber files, and getting them made through an online service, but I had never done it before. I downloaded Kicad and learned a bit about the different layers that comprise a PCB: the fiberglass board, the conductive copper layer, the colored solder mask, immersion gold, and white silkscreen, as well as the board outline, which can be any shape. I designed the layers so that they would create a cohesive pattern, with copper, gold, and white silkscreen on one side, and the other side white silkscreen only.
The dark blue solder mask I chose ended up being very opaque, so the additional layer of copper underneath the solder mask wasn't really visible, but you can kind of see it in the form of a slightly embossed edge around the "Discordian Knot" design. The resulting object was very satisfying to hold, and also quite durable, as I've been using it as a keychain for a few weeks now. I learned a lot from this project, and I hope to create more PCBs-as-art-objects in the future.
Here is a video I made of a few of these Objects so you can see them existing in time and space:
So, that brings us up to date on the latest Mystery Objects, at least until I send out the next batch in December. Creating these Objects and snail-mailing them out to people around the world has brought me a lot of pleasure. If you're interested in receiving strange Objects like these in your mailbox periodically, check out the link below and consider becoming a Zine Club Member. The more people join, the more time I can spend creating weird art.