Combustive Motor Corporation: A Brief History
Combustive 2.0 is a production design, fabrication and web development agency based in Brooklyn, New York. Our clients rely on us to manage their multimedia projects from day one to final delivery.
Founded in the early 2000s, Combustive 2.0 has a rich history tied to the heart of New York’s creative community. Originally branded as Combustive Motor Corporation, we began our journey as an arts collective with a focus on film-making, fabrication for theater, and urban art. We produced documentaries on local Brooklyn and New York City artists and published U.F.O., a book which now boasts a cult following amongst street art enthusiasts. We are proud to maintain long-standing connections with The Wooster Group and Collapsible Giraffe, two of New York’s most well-recognized arts institutions.
Original founder Glenn “Jack” Warren re-established the company as Combustive 2.0 early in 2019. Initially focused on production design and fabrication for the creative industries (with clients including Vice Media, Mountain Dew and Virgin Voyages), we have since expanded our services across a range of digital and online media—from web development to print design and branding.
Below are outlined a few select projects from the history of Combustive Motor Corporation.
A more extensive history of our work can be viewed at Dripbook.
The P.A.L.M. Mechanics Manual
One of the earliest projects from Combustive Motor Corporation, the P.A.L.M. Mechanics Manual was produced by Jack Warren and Caleb Scott, “Members of the P.A.L.M. Guild of Art Mechanics”.
The concept and layout of the book were based the user manuals of the time and followed a similar set of instructions, however related to art-making in place of the operation of a vehicle.
U.F.O. Art Book & Trailer
Beneath the dark highway overpasses of Brooklyn, within the forbidden rail yards of Queens, and along the rooftops and stairwells of Manhattan, four urban explorers record and decode the work of one of New York City’s most vilified and elusive graffiti artists: UFO. Using historical and scientific documentation, personal narratives, and photographic evidence, the Combustive Motor Corporation thoroughly documents the markings of their elusive obsession in U.F.O. A seamless blend of fact and fiction, art and enterprise, U.F.O. is a wild goose chase, after a figurehead of underground art that appears only in the form of his spray-painted avatars.
Begun in 2004 as a treatment for a feature film, u.f.o. has became the first major book for the art collective Combustive Motor Corporation. It has documented UFO’s artwork around New York City for over three years, and its members describe themselves as having a "second nature" for finding his often hidden symbols.
U.F.O. can be purchased through Amazon.
The Original Combustive Motor Corporation Website
This is a screen-grab of the original Combustive Motor Corporation website circa 2007. The full archive of the website can be accessed using the Way Back Machine.