Inside the LSD Museum That the DEA Somehow Hasn’t Nuked

(electronic music)

[Narrator] Silicon Valley has always had

a special relationship with acid.

Steve Jobs experimented with it in the 70's,

and today people are microdosing with it at start ups.

What fascinates me about blotter is like

what fascinates me about all good art.

It changes your mind.

[Narrator] This is the Institute of Illegal Images,

a free San Francisco museum, full of tiny,

LSD icons, printed on blotter paper,

early brands, once as recognizable to those

in the know as emoji are today.

My name's Mark McCloud, and I've come to this planet

to reduce the amount of suffering by collecting blotter.

[Narrator] It all started in the early 1970's.

December 9, 1971 I took the most powerful

substance on earth, and it was a hit of Nicky Sands

Orange Sunshine, and I happened to fall out a window

onto my kisser and die in the middle of it.

And thanks to the LSD, I was reborn.

That's why I collect blotter.

A small thank you for the thing that saved me.

[Narrator] Of course, curating art work soaked

in a Schedule One drug has also caught the interest

of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

When they came in to bust me, the first one they came in

and took off the wall which is up there on the wall,

number one, just so happens to be a Mandala,

that when inspected closely turns out to be

the seal of the FBI.

So they started with that one,

and then moved all the way through.

They numbered about 350 of them.

Well on the last trial the DA claimed I had

33,000 sheets, of course, I had many, many more.

Now, you only need 1,000 sheets of 1,000

to make a million hits. That's right.

That's all it is.

Here we're, we're running a perforation board

off a printing press.

This is a good way to turn a

seven and a half inch by seven and a half inch

art piece into 900 little hits,

or chads, as they say in the political world.

So then there you got, you know 900 new friends.

[Narrator] McCloud's collection has been featured

in books and news articles and magazines,

including an early issue of Wired.

The great Eno on the cover, in 95 Wired ran an article

about blotter art and they asked me for many, many

examples to lay out.

This issue was brought into trial.

This is evidence in a court trial, my last trial.

And yeah, my co conspirator, Wired.

So Wired's involved, up to their necks.

(laughing)