Far Out Company: A Visual Odyssey of the Counterculture

"A curated explosion of visual overload, documenting the fringes, the communes, and the psychedelic underground of a bygone era."

Far Out Company serves as a sprawling digital archive dedicated to the aesthetic and social remnants of the 1960s and 70s. It is a repository of ~~mainstream~~ countercultural history, capturing the essence of a time when art, politics, and spirituality collided.

Far Out Company

🌀 The Ecosystem of the Underground

The archive maps a complex network of interconnected scenes. To understand the scope, we can visualize the relationship between the different pillars of the movement:

🏡 Communes and Sacred Spaces

The movement was defined by a rejection of urban isolation in favor of collective existence. The archive documents various experiments in living, from the mountains of New Mexico to the forests of Vermont.

Notable Living Experiments

The Spiritual & Natural:
- Lama Foundation (1970s)
- Mt. Philo Commune
- Tree Frog Commune, Vermont
- Findhorn Foundation ('70s)
- Brotherhood of the Spirit Commune
The Rural & Radical:
- Harbinger Commune
- Maplewood Mudflats (1971)
- Wheeler’s Ranch Renaissance Community (1970s)
- The True Light Beavers (1973)
- Total Loss Farm (1973)
- Gandalf’s Garden ('68-'70)

Lama Foundation, 1970s Harbinger Commune Tree Frog Commune, Vermont

📰 The Underground Press & Ephemera

Information flowed through "zines," radical newspapers, and private presses. This was the analog internet of the era.

Publication / Entity	Era/Date	Location/Context
Quicksilver Times	'69-'71	Counterculture News
The Rag	'69-'76	Radical Press
Washington Free Press	1969	Political Underground
The Great Speckled Bird	'68-'71	Southern Radicalism
International Times	1968	Global Psychedelia
Nowsreal	1968	Visual Experimentation
The Magenta Frog	1972	Artistic Press
Entropic Journal	1977	Late-era Psychedelia

Other Essential Print Media:

Regional Gems: Yarrowstalks (1967), The Now Explosion (1970), Contact (1970), Free Spirit Press (1972), News from Nowhere (1970), The New Penelope (Montreal, 1967), Razz Revue (1973), Breezes (Brighton, 1968), Radical Software (1973), Harbinger (Toronto, 1970s), More Actuel (Early '70s), Boulder Vibes (1970s), Oracle of Corte Madera (1968).
Specialized Works: Counterculture Paperbacks, The Print Mint (1967), Rainbow Oracle (1970), Hippie Studies (1968), Wimmen’s Comix Party (1976), The Daily Blotter (1975), NOLA Express.
Academic/Student Press: Blockprint RISD Student Magazine (67-68), Well-Being Magazine (mid-70s), Communities (mid-70s).

🎨 Visual Architects and Artists

The "visual overload" mentioned in the title is driven by a specific set of artists who defined the psychedelic aesthetic.

The Masters of the Poster & Page:

Wes Wilson ('66-'67) & Rick Griffin ('69, '76)
Mahlon Blaine (dating back to 1929)
Larry Noggle (1972) & Joe McHugh (1967)
Ged Rumak (1970) & Todd Trexler (1971)
Rand Holmes (1972) & Von Schmidt (1970)

Other Contributors:

John Thompson (working for Allen Ginsberg, 1969 and Actuel, 1970)
Mari Tepper (1968), Helen Rich (1966), Gary Patterson (1968)
Capitaine Kebec (1973), Orpheus (1968), Lee Conklin (1971)
Color Humano (1973), Joe Roberts Jr. (1967)

Boston Common, 1967 Inside a Head Shop, Boston, 1968

📍 Geographic Hubs & Cultural Markers

The movement wasn't monolithic; it existed in pockets of intensity across the globe.

Boston: Boston Common (1967), Erewhon (1970s), Boston Tea Party Handbills (1967-1970).
California: Big Sur (1972), Sausalito (1974), Middle Ridge Road, Albion (1975), Santa Barbara (1967), Santa Cruz.
Colorado: Freeform Radio (1970s), Mountain Aire Ren Fair Graphics, Paperbag (1968).
International: Montreal (The New Penelope), Brighton (Breezes), Toronto (Harbinger).

Miscellaneous Artifacts

People & Moments: Suzy Creamcheese (1967), Charles Bronson at the Food Chakra (1973), Viktoras Kulvinskas (1971), Steve Seymour (Retinal Circus '68), Praire Jackson et al (1970s), Nathan Terre (1969), Chas Sippel (1975).
Objects & Media: Music Emporium USA Catalog (1975), Alice Coltrane's Eternity's Pillar, Chicago Seed (Jan '68).
Private Press Gems: Helix Pages (1967-1970), Actuel (Early '70s), The Kaleidoscope (1967-1968), Woodwind (1972).

Macramé Park, 1974 Suzy Creamcheese, 1967 Mt. Philo Commune Maplewood Mudflats, 1971

🛠️ Technical & Theoretical Appendix

To quantify the "vibe" of the Far Out Company archive, we can use a theoretical formula for countercultural resonance:

$\text{Resonance} = \int_{1966}^{1977} (\text{Psychedelia} \times \text{Radicalism}) \, dt$

If we were to represent this archive as a data object, it might look like this:

{
  "archive": "Far Out Company",
  "content": "Visual Overload",
  "tags": ["Counterculture", "1960s", "1970s", "Underground"],
  "entities": {
    "communes": ["Lama", "Harbinger", "Tree Frog"],
    "artists": ["Wes Wilson", "Rick Griffin", "Mahlon Blaine"],
    "press": ["The Rag", "Quicksilver Times", "International Times"]
  }
}

📝 Archive Checklist

Document the communes
Catalog the underground press
Archive the psychedelic posters
Reach total visual saturation

Contact Information:

Handle: @faroutcompany
Email: hello@faroutcompany.com