Bio-morphic transformations, countless limbs, undulating tentacles and a decaying human form all define the term ‘body horror’. Although there are many films that exhibit this trope, arguably the versatility, artistry and sheer imaginative insanity of Japanese animation best exhibits the true primal fear that is body horror. ‘And I Must Scream’ will explore the various forms of body horror as exhibited in anime, including its origins in Japanese animation and the symbolic meanings behind it.
Find out more »Stacy Horn is a writer, journalist, and contributor to NPR’s “All Things Considered,” for which she has produced pieces on the 1945 story of five missing five children in West Virginia, the Vatican’s search for a patron saint of the internet, and an overview of cold case investigations in the United States. Her books include Imperfect Harmony: Finding Happiness Singing with Others; The Restless Sleep: Inside New York City’s Cold Case Squad; Waiting for My Cats to Die: A Morbid Memoir; and Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory
Find out more »We will explore the costuming of shamans and tribal leaders, the fashions of kings and queens, warriors and witches. From pagan ritualistic costuming to modern fashion art pieces, from knife-spiked stilettos to metal corsets, from ancient ritual masks to modern and historical makeup and body modification, The Cult of Fashion takes a look at the often dangerous and always compelling chase of fashion from ancient to modern times.
Find out more »In this exclusive workshop, we will learn about the wonderful diversity of pigeons and classic bird taxidermy. These are NOT New York City pigeons, but fancy heritage breeds, including Fantails and Homers. These fascinating birds were used by Charles Darwin as one of the examples in his first chapter of “On the Origins of Species”, and a variety of colors will be available for students to select in class. The birds used in this class are naturally deceased show birds from one of America’s leading pigeon enthusiasts-making for a very unique opportunity!
Find out more »Tonight, join Luc Sante, author of “Low Life,” for an illustrated talk based on his new book “The Other Paris,” which provides a panoramic view of the nearly vanished shadow side of The City of Light, through the whorehouses and dance halls and hobo shelters of the old city, touching on labor conditions, prostitution, drinking, crime, and popular entertainment, as well as the reporters, réaliste singers, pamphleteers, and poets who chronicled their evolution.
Find out more »This talk will focus on the approach to examination of brains from a forensic standpoint. It will touch on both natural and unnatural causes of brain dysfunction relevant to medicolegal death investigation.
Find out more »Katherine Bauer in an artist working with incantation-like performances captured in 16mm film and video, dead remains of roadkill preserved through crystallization in various chemical brews, and large, arcane paper photograms. An evening of her moving image works will be presented at the Morbid Anatomy Museum, with musical scores performed live by the artist, and concluding with the film-portrait by MM Serra “Breathe Deep,” documenting Bauer’s sculptural work with crystallized and mummified animal remains.
Find out more »A corpse is much more than a dead body. By examining the association between photography and embalming both as aesthetics and as mourning practices Margaret Schwartz theorizes the connections between the body and the image. The result is a new politics of representation wherein certain bodies are privileged with control over their images in death, and others are not.
Find out more »The concept-and at times the actuality-of death always attends the psychedelic experience. This lecture will provide a brief overview of the many ways in which death influences the psychedelic experience. It will also offer a recontextualization of that relationship, providing a broader conceptual umbrella for the various ways in which death infuses and informs the psychedelic mindset, in ways which better resonate with the modern worldview.
Find out more »In this class, students will learn all the skills required to make-and leave class with-their very own piece of one- or two-headed anthropomorphic taxidermy. Anthropomorphic taxidermy-a practice in which animals are posed as if engaged in human activities-was an art form made famous by Victorian taxidermist and museologist Walter Potter. In this class, as profiled by the New York Times, students will learn to create-from start to finish-anthropomorphic mice inspired by the charming and imaginative work of Mr. Potter. Your final project might take the form of a bespectacled, whiskey swilling, top hat tipping mouse; or perhaps a rodent mermaid queen of the burlesque world? With some props and some artful styling, your mouse can become whatever or whomever you want; this is the joy of anthropomorphic taxidermy.
Find out more »Tonight, join Dr. Ray O Neill - writer, psychoanalyst, and witty Irishman - for a lecture illustrating how Freud, Dalí and Lacans theories on psychoanalysis, surrealism, and representation, all mediate the narcissistic double which Freud defines as the uncanny harbinger of death, contrasted with an illustrated lecture by Claire-Madeline Culkin on mourning and sexuality via a psychoanalytic lens on the work of Nan Goldin.
Find out more »oin the Members of the Tarot Society on the last Monday of every month for an evening of tarot reading , astrology, palmistry, and other divinatory mediums. Darcey Leonard and her team see fortune telling as a “psychic weather report,” offering the querent a new perspective of the present, and pragmatic advice for the future.
Find out more »This talk explores the life and times of William B Seabrook, 1920s ‘lost generation’ journalist and travel writer, famous in the 20s and 30s for joining a cannibal cult in West Africa, living amongst the Bedouin in Arabia, and participation in voodoo rites in Haiti, as well as a scandalous boozy life amongst the Modernists on the French Riviera and the occultists of London and Paris.
Find out more »In this illustrated lecture, Dr. Kirkbride will discuss the remarkable origins, difficult histories and the current plight and promise of Kirkbride Hospitals for the Insane. Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, seventy-five “Kirkbride Plan” Asylums were constructed across the United States, Canada and Australia according to the vision of Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, a pivotal figure in the development of Psychiatry in the United States and a forebear of Robert Kirkbride.
Find out more »The physician, the actor, the scientist, the explorer, the holy man, and the warrior all pose with skulls to convey accomplishment and status. In these images, the attitude of those posing with body parts changes over time, as each generation acquired new knowledge and approached the sanctity of the body with new cultural considerations.
Find out more »In this edition of our popular Victorian hair art class, master jeweler and art historian Karen Bachmann will teach students two traditional Victorian hair art techniques: palette working, or arranging hair in artful swoops and curls; and wire work, in which hair is looped tightly around wires to create three dimensional flowers and wreaths.
Find out more »We invite you to join taxidermy artist Amber Maykut for a beginners class in taxidermy. All materials including an ethically sourced, already deceased mouse for each student will be provided. Everything involved in producing a fully finished mount, including initial preparation, hygiene and sanitary measures, fleshing, tail stripping, and dry preservation, will be demonstrated and practiced.
Find out more »Dream has played an integral role throughout alchemy. By reading several recorded dreams from Alexandrian alchemists and others, tonight’s talk will examine the use of dreams and visions in alchemical work. We will discuss methods and techniques of dream work and visualization found in early alchemy texts with a view to its application not only in alchemy but in any creative practice.
Find out more »Your Morbid Academy host MITCH HOROWITZ is a writer and publisher with a lifelong interest in man’s search for meaning. The PEN Award-winning author of Occult America and One Simple Idea, Mitch has written on everything from the war on witches to the secret life of Ronald Reagan for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Salon, and Time. The Washington Post says Mitch “treats esoteric ideas and movements with an even-handed intellectual studiousness that is too often lost in today’s raised-voice discussions.” Mitch hosts the web series ORIGINS: SUPERSTITIONS, directed by Morbid Anatomy filmmaker-in-residence Ronni Thomas.
Find out more »This class will cover both beginner and advanced techniques used in small mammal taxidermy from start to finish-students will learn proper skinning and fleshing procedures, how to split, turn and position facial features, including the ears, proper dry preservation, and the traditional methods of building a form using wrapped body and the carcass as reference. A selection of props and accessories will be provided, and students can choose from anthropomorphic or naturalistic displays. Instruction on how to create your own props, such as top hats, monocles, and squirrel sized clothes, will also be provided, along with materials to make antlers, horns, or tentacles. As always, students are also welcome to bring their own props or accessories if desired.
Find out more »In this workshop, we will cover all the basics and specific techniques applicable to small bird taxidermy and the “fancywork” that goes into creating a successful mount. As cute as they are, English sparrows are considered an invasive species in the US. This class will cover their nuanced anatomy, and their historic and symbolic significance as well. We will also cover the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and other applicable laws for working with birds and legally obtaining specimens,
Find out more »Is there life after death? That question has been posed for all of human history, but in the early twentieth century, after millions of lives had been sacrificed on the battlefields of World War I and lost to the Spanish flu epidemic, the search for an answer would reach new heights. As the bereaved desperately sought ways to connect with their dead loved ones, psychics and spirit mediums emerged from the shadows to offer hope and solace. By the 1920s, Spiritualism was as in vogue as jazz; and in 1923, Scientific American magazine launched the era’s most ambitious inquiry into the paranormal. Assembling a five-man committee of esteemed experts, the magazine offered a large cash prize to the medium who could demonstrate verifiable psychic phenomena. What ensued is an epic story of mystery and rivalry that screenwriter David Jaher has masterfully brought to life in THE WITCH OF LIME STREET: Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World
Find out more »We hope you can join us for a special evening of dinner, drinks, performances & special guests, an auction of one-of-a-kind art,
objects, and experiences, and much more! Watch this space for more information!
What records will you listen to in your 1950s cold war atomic bomb shelter to pass the time while the clawing sound from the neighbors and their children outside the locked steel door grows fainter as the nuclear fallout settles in? You’ve got some time to relax now — some good, long radiation half-life type of time! — let’s play some music on the old record player!
Find out more »This lecture will provide examples of contemporary shamans as well as suggest what can be learned from their herbal knowledge, their sacred rituals, and their community service.
Find out more »From concept to completion, each student will be guided through the process of creating an original stop motion animation sequence. As a class, we will look and discuss an array of historical and contemporary examples of stop motion techniques pioneered by: Lotte Reninger, Wadysaw Starewicz, Caroline Leaf, Frank and Caroline Mouris,Terry Gilliam, Kelly Sears and others. Each student will produce an original 30 second stop motion cut-out/collage constructed tactically with found and printed materials.
Find out more »Join the Members of the Tarot Society on the last Monday of every month for an evening of tarot reading , astrology, palmistry, and other divinatory mediums. Darcey Leonard and her team see fortune telling as a “psychic weather report,” offering the querent a new perspective of the present, and pragmatic advice for the future.
Find out more »For the third installment of the series Psychoanalysis, Art & the Occult, we welcome Dr. Alexander Cummins and Jesse Hathaway Diaz, as they speak from varying albeit intersecting positions about image magic, iconography, divination, the passions and the psychology reflected therein.
Find out more »The cabinets of curiosities of Renaissance Europe brought together objects from the realms of geology, archaeology, and natural history, as well as relics, art, and a healthy dose of the macabre. You might even hang an alligator on your ceiling. These spaces were intimately connected to the domestic sphere, but they also suggested a wide world beyond. And although Wunderkammer did not classify their contents, they are considered to be the precursor to museums.
Harlan will explore the history of these collections and discuss the process of transforming a small room in her own home into a Wunderkammer, complete with taxidermy, skulls, statuettes, beetles, butterflies, rocks, and fossils, as well as some modern elements such as fridge magnets, souvenirs, a glow-in-the dark scorpion paperweight, and her former dashboard hula girl. The lecture will include a special appearance by (the snow globe of) Claude the Albino Alligator from the California Academy of Sciences.
Find out more »The discussion will be about the state institutions of Massachusetts- the rise and fall of the state hospital system and the future of the abandoned giants and their place in popular culture.
Find out more »Debra Diamond will discuss her just released book, Life After Near Death: Miraculous Stories of Healing and Transformation in the Extraordinary Lives of People with Newfound Powers and what no one talks about: What really happens when someone returns from an NDE. Debra will share and answer questions about the research she’s done for her book,consciousness and miraculous NDE after-effects.
Find out more »Tonight, join Spanish scholar Cristina Pérez Arranz for a night devoted to Goya’s famous Black Paintings, a series of fourteen images he painted on the walls of his country house (known as The Villa of the Deaf) between 1819 and 1823, the most famous of them being Saturn Devouring His Son (see image).
Find out more »Goth 101: A History of the Postpunk and Goth Subculture, 1978 - 1992, An Illustrated Lecture with Andi Harriman Date: Wednesday, April 27th Time: 7pm Admission: $12 Location: Morbid Anatomy Museum, 424 Third Avenue, 11215 Brooklyn Tickets Here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2495657 From DIY beginnings in the late 70s to the end of its initial phase at the turn of the 90s, the postpunk and goth subculture flourished for over a decade with its dark and dramatic aesthetics. Goth’s DNA is a diverse and…
Find out more »The tale of the brooding seeker of knowledge transformed to ebullient youth and the waggish attendant from the underworld who both aids and sabotages him in his quest to win the innocent lass has taken many guises. F. W. Murnau’s silent classic “Faust” (1926) remains one of the exemplary versions of the story, shimmering with moments of pure cine-magic.
Find out more »In tonight’s illustrated lecture, join Dr. Laqueur ior an illustrated talk, tracing the body from churchyard to cemetery to crematory, providing a fascinating chronicle of how we shape the dead and are in turn shaped by them.
Find out more »Join us for an evening with professional taxidermist and Morbid Anatomy Museum resident Divya Anantharaman Zweigart as she shows how a peacock is transformed from raw specimen to a finished taxidermy piece! She will be demonstrating the preparatory steps of the taxidermy process, basic bird anatomy and its relevance to a successful taxidermy piece, and describing specific skinning, fleshing, and preservation techniques used for birds.
Find out more »The concept-and at times the actuality-of death always attends the psychedelic experience. This lecture will provide a brief overview of the many ways in which death influences the psychedelic experience. It will also offer a recontextualization of that relationship, providing a broader conceptual umbrella for the various ways in which death infuses and informs the psychedelic mindset, in ways which better resonate with the modern worldview.
Find out more »We are pleased to present the original 1925 version of “Phantom of the Opera” in all of its rich, chiaroscuro spendor on 16mm film! Do not mistake this for the mawkish offspring of stage and screen, for the original story of the beauteous damsel and the ghastly fiend is a macabre delight of the gruesome, horror-house atmosphere firmly rooted in the Grand Guignol. It is a film of dark catacombs, deadly mantraps, with the shadows of unseen horrors glimpsed on the dank stone walls of backstage nether regions. Stairs lead ever downwards to dark chambers below other chambers while hidden trap doors take one further down below. A gondola glides on the waters of an underground lake, echoing the subterranean swan pool of the Venusgrotto installed for Ludwig II of Bavaria beneath Linderhof castle.
Find out more »Tonight Aaron will be holding a live animal show at the Morbid Anatomy Museum. Most of his animal specimens are insects, but also include arachnids, reptiles, amphibians and fish, all of which are harmless. The event will be an informal show-and-tell, a Q & A session where guests can touch and hold the animals while Aaron answer whatever questions they may have. People can also gather around to take pictures or videos of the animals.
Find out more »This lecture is a presentation of HarperCollins author Jo Weldon’s years-long research into the history of leopard print!
Find out more »A monthly series of provocative and useful dialogues with artists, writers, filmmakers, and scholars who broaden our understanding of the ill-considered and the unknown, hosted by PEN Award-winning historian Mitch Horowitz
Photographer Shannon Taggart has travelled the world documenting the practices and rituals of talking to the dead. She has probably photographed more mediums, séances, and Spiritualist ceremonies, on different continents, than any other living artist. Shannon and Mitch will discuss why our current categories of evaluating the reality or fakery of mediumistic activity are inadequate to the phenomena, and how we can embark on a new, fresh, and meaningful way of understanding claims of the paranormal, from the production to ectoplasm to the appearance of ghostly orbs.
Find out more »2016 marks the 400th Anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. To celebrate, join Melinda Hall-director and producer for Willful Pictures-for an illustrated talk about the dead Shakespearean characters, common causes of death in Shakespeare’s time (1564-1616) such as plague and syphilis, and period burial rites as well as Shakespeare’s own death and the curse on his grave. Come & crush a cup and toast to Master Shakespeare.
Find out more »In this class, students will learn all the skills required to make-and leave class with-their very own piece of one- or two-headed anthropomorphic taxidermy.
Anthropomorphic taxidermy-a practice in which animals are posed as if engaged in human activities-was an art form made famous by Victorian taxidermist and museologist Walter Potter. In this class, as profiled by the New York Times, students will learn to create-from start to finish-anthropomorphic mice inspired by the charming and imaginative work of Mr. Potter. Your final project might take the form of a bespectacled, whiskey swilling, top hat tipping mouse; or perhaps a rodent mermaid queen of the burlesque world? With some props and some artful styling, your mouse can become whatever or whomever you want; this is the joy of anthropomorphic taxidermy.
Find out more »This class will cover both beginner and advanced techniques used in small mammal taxidermy from start to finish-students will learn proper skinning and fleshing procedures, how to split, turn and position facial features, including the ears, proper dry preservation, and the traditional methods of building a form using wrapped body and the carcass as reference. A selection of props and accessories will be provided, and students can choose from anthropomorphic or naturalistic displays. Instruction on how to create your own props, such as top hats, monocles, and ermine sized clothes, will also be provided, along with materials to make antlers, horns, or tentacles. As always, students are also welcome to bring their own props or accessories if desired.
Find out more »The film once enjoyed revival by way of an update with narration by William S. Burroughs, but we shall present the splendid original — shown on 16mm film! — with an assembled soundtrack from 78 records DJ’d “live” upon the Victrola by filmmaker and drollerist Joel Schlemowitz.
Find out more »The film once enjoyed revival by way of an update with narration by William S. Burroughs, but we shall present the splendid original — shown on 16mm film! — with an assembled soundtrack from 78 records DJ’d “live” upon the Victrola by filmmaker and drollerist Joel Schlemowitz.
Find out more »Please join us as author Daniel Braum celebrates the release of his first short story collection of strange tales. Braum will be reading from his collection, speaking about the genre, and providing free give-aways and special surprises.
Find out more »Join the Members of the Tarot Society on the last Monday of every month for an evening of tarot reading , astrology, palmistry, and other divinatory mediums. Darcey Leonard and her team see fortune telling as a “psychic weather report,” offering the querent a new perspective of the present, and pragmatic advice for the future.
Find out more »While Santa Muerte, the Mexican saint of death, usually appears as a fierce narco-saint in mass media, TV and film, her oldest and most popular roles is that of love sorceress, mending, binding and even breaking Mexican and American hearts.
Find out more »This illustrated lecture will highlight a fascinating chapter of reproductive medical history, allowing us to examine the nuances between skepticism, showmanship, exploitation and ethical concerns with emerging technology.
Find out more »Bio-morphic transformations, countless limbs, undulating tentacles and a decaying human form all define the term ‘body horror’. Although there are many films that exhibit this trope, arguably the versatility, artistry and sheer imaginative insanity of Japanese animation best exhibits the true primal fear that is body horror. ‘And I Must Scream’ will explore the various forms of body horror as exhibited in anime, including its origins in Japanese animation and the symbolic meanings behind it.
Find out more »Join writer, filmmaker and composer Chris Alexander for a mini-masterclass on the house that Serling built, television’s groundbreaking dark fantasy series THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
Find out more »This lecture will look at how deaths, both real and imaginary, have been staged in the theatre over the centuries. From Roman executions that turned the condemned into unwilling actors, to the gruesome (but fake) spectacle of the Grand Guignol, performers have been figurativelyand sometimes literallydying onstage for as long as theatre has been existed.
Find out more »From Oskar Kokoschka’s feathered sex doll to the demonic puppets of Richard Teschner, this illustrated talk examines the gender roles of Vienna 1900, asking why puppets, marionettes, dolls and automata were used to express fears around femininity and changing gender roles, and how these bizarre objects might relate to our own understanding of gender.
Find out more »