3d illusion arts: Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Meet Hostgator Dotcom, Formerly Known as Billy Gibby, the Human Billboard
Wacky Scientist-Turned-Artist Uses Bacteria to Create Art
World’s Largest Vertical Garden Grows on Italian Shopping Center

Meet Hostgator Dotcom, Formerly Known as Billy Gibby, the Human Billboard

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:42 AM PDT

If the name Hostgator Dotcom sounds familiar it’s because it’s also the name of a popular Internet hosting company. The man formerly known as Billy Gibby sold the rights to his name to the highest bidder, in addition to selling advertising space in the form of permanent tattoos on his face and body.

We’ve seen similar gimmicks in the past. Just last year we reported about Pat Vaillacourt, a Canadian man who charges $35 to tattoo people and business site addresses on his body, and earlier this year there was the story of Tina Beznec, from New Zealand, who auctioned off a portion of her buttock to be tattooed with whatever the winner desired, in an atempt to raise money for unpaid bills and a trip to Australia. But the case of Hostgator Dotcom is a lot more interesting. The Anchorage-based man started offering advertising spots on his body during the mid 2000s, in a time when the practice had become really popular. It was an easy way to fund his boxing career, so he could fight to support the cause of organ donation, and he even set his sights on claiming a Guinness record for most corporate logos tattooed on a human body. He’s still selling advertising space on his face today, in a constant selfless effort to support his family. In 2010, he took another extreme step and sold off the rights to his original name to the highest bidder, which happened to be Hostgator.com.

Photo: Bizarre Magazine

Dotcom, a firm supporter of organ donation, who actually gave one of his kidneys to a total stranger, used site logo tattoos to pay for hospital bills after the surgery, and even though he stopped offering his services for a while, he resumed the practice when the recession hit. "I did it to make sure my kids wouldn’t be homeless,” the father-of-five recently told BuzzFeed. He currently has 37 tattoos on his body, many of them on his face, and although he’s got plenty of available inventory, he’s having trouble finding buyers. He even offered to add BuzzFeed on his forehead for a mere $800 fee, and change his name to ”Buzzfeeddotcom Buzzfeeddotcom Buzzfeeddotcom”, in an effort to keep his weird business alive. After years in which finding clients wasn’t a problem, the market for human billboard seems to be dying off, and people like Hostgator are forced to contact websites directly to inquire about advertising.

Photo: Bizarre Magazine

One of the biggest problems Dotcom has faced throughout his career as a living billboard has been dealing with extinct advertisers. Their names on his body no longer served any purpose, so he just covered them up with other brands. Unfortunately, many of the current site names on his face and body are from the adult video industry, and that hurt his bare-knuckle boxing career. The man formerly known as Billy Gibby says he was taken off the bill of a match airing on a Christian television station because of all the adult entertainment site ads on his face and body. Plus, “a lot of people think I’m a criminal just because I have tattoos," Dotcom added. Talking about his future plans, Hostgator said he’s considering one day selling a giant tattoo on his whole body to a single company and becoming a "human-mascot-type thing."

Photo: Stephen Nigl

Making a connection between Hostgator’s boxing career and his weird name, you could say him getting knocked out gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “Hostgator is down”.

Meet Hostgator Dotcom, Formerly Known as Billy Gibby, the Human Billboard was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Wacky Scientist-Turned-Artist Uses Bacteria to Create Art

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 02:42 AM PDT

Zachary Copfer, a former microbiologist recently turned visual artist, uses bacteria like E.coli to create detailed artworks in petri dishes. His weird technique is aptly called “bacteriography”.

If you’re hungry for some out-of-this-world art, then Zachary Copfer’s bacteriography series should feed your appetite for a while. His photo-printing technique is unlike anything you’ve seen before, in that rather than using photo-sensitive papers, chemicals, or ink, Copfer uses live bacteria. The University of Cincinnati MFA photography student actually controls how the bacteria grows in order to form detailed works of art. Copfer stars his unique artistic process by turning bacteria like E.coli into a fluorescent protein and spreading it across a plate. A negative of the photo he wants to reproduce is placed on top of the plate and exposed to radiation, causing the bacteria to grow in strategic places and recreating a detailed image. Once the photo is replicated, the bacteriography work of art is coated in acrylic and resin to stop it degrading.

So far, the wacky scientist has created detailed bacteria portraits of Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin and Pablo Picasso, as well as a detailed telescopic view of the Milky Way. “I have begun searching for ways to synthesize the seemingly dichotomous fields of science and art. I believe that the separation of art and science is a misconception shared by many who are unfamiliar with the simple elegance of scientific theories. For me the world of science has always been a beautiful poetic place, more artful than anyplace else I have ever known”, Zachary Copfer says about his art.

Photos © Zachary Copfer

via PetaPixel

Wacky Scientist-Turned-Artist Uses Bacteria to Create Art was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

World’s Largest Vertical Garden Grows on Italian Shopping Center

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 01:46 AM PDT

A shopping center in the Italian town of Rozanno has recently claimed a rather unusual Guinness record, for the world’s biggest vertical garden. Growing on the walls of the commercial complex, the unique garden covers an area of 1,263 square meters and is made up of about 44,000 plants.

Just o be clear, the thousands of plants covering the sides of Rozanno’s shopping center were not planted in the ground next to the building and simply grew to cover the walls, they actually grow on the building itself. Italian architect Francisco Bollani, who was in charge of the project, says it took his team a whole year just to grow all the 44,000 plants, and another 90 days to place them on the walls of the commercial building. Although it might seem like the walls are covered with soil from which the flora grows, the walls were actually lined with metallic containers that hold the plants. Using these Lego-like metal pieces made the vertical garden a lot easier to build then with classic methods, but it also increased the cost of the project to a total of €1 million ($1.3 million).

Photo: Daniela Minardi

The vertical garden of Rozanno is definitely a magnificent sight to behold, but its purpose extends beyond aesthetics. Shopping centre director Simone Rao said: “This is sustainable architecture, which can combine beauty with energy saving while respecting the environment.” The plant life growing on the walls of the building helps regulate the temperature inside, and by reducing direct sunlight, it helps keep energy consumption to a minimum. This man-made wonder also absorbs carbon dioxide and keeps ambient noise to a minimum.

Photo: Tutto Green

The previous record was held by a vertical garden in Madrid, Spain, which covered “just” 844 square meters. I guess it’s time to get planting, if they want it back.