Eighth issue of the Subsidia Pataphysical periodical, based upon the two themes of humour and the moon. Issue features an article, ‘Pataphysique de l’Humour’, (pataphysics of humour) which is a study upon Jules Verne, perpetual motion, and more. 

The Collège de Pataphysique, founded in 1948 in Paris, is “a society committed to learned and inutilious research”. (The word ‘inutilious’ is synonymous with ‘useless’.) The motto of the college is the Latin phrase, ‘Eadem mutata resurgo’ (I arise again the same though changed).

In the 1960’s pataphysics was used as a conceptual principle within various fine art forms, especially pop art and popular culture. Works within the pataphysical tradition tend to focus on the processes of their creation. Elements of chance or arbitrary choices are frequently key in these processes. Select pieces from the artist Marcel Duchamp and composer John Cage exemplify this concept. At around this time, Asger Jorn, a pataphysician and member of the Situationist International, referred to pataphysics as a new religion.