Notable in the early debate about mechanization is the naive lack of concern about pollutants. When the machine occurs as 5% of the landscape it appears pretty benign,because there is an obvious opportunity to get away from it. When the machine overtakes and overwhelms the natural world, it becomes oppressive in its dominance, making the fragility of the natural world obvious and frightening.
This is such a beautiful piece! My husband works in refineries and he’s always said he wants to make a coffee table book of all of the factories in these picturesque settings. We’ve visited a lot of them and they are always settled in the mountains, along streams and glaciers. They remind me of that portrait, and your aesthetic of industry in harmony with the natural world. I loved this.
There was also the style (at least in central Europe) by the end of XIX. century that combined technology with classical motives. Here Greek gods and heroes are riding a draisine (wall painting, Budapest Keleti Station): https://accidentallywesanderson.com/places/keleti-railway-station/
I really enjoyed reading this. Not many people mentioned Thomas Carlyle these days; but he is worth reading. And I really liked your exploration of contemporary are in relation to the machine in the garden tradition.
Notable in the early debate about mechanization is the naive lack of concern about pollutants. When the machine occurs as 5% of the landscape it appears pretty benign,because there is an obvious opportunity to get away from it. When the machine overtakes and overwhelms the natural world, it becomes oppressive in its dominance, making the fragility of the natural world obvious and frightening.
This is such a beautiful piece! My husband works in refineries and he’s always said he wants to make a coffee table book of all of the factories in these picturesque settings. We’ve visited a lot of them and they are always settled in the mountains, along streams and glaciers. They remind me of that portrait, and your aesthetic of industry in harmony with the natural world. I loved this.
New artistic visions of a hopeful future are hereby humbly solicited.
We could sure use more of them.
The future will happen, inevitably.
And technology will continue, inevitably.
So how we think about technology, feel about it, and make use of it, are all choices.
If we do not have a picture of a magnificent future making use of technology, we will be doomed to something less, and worse, and perhaps even evil.
Bring on the art. We need it.
Very interesting peice !!! I wonder if the decline in art that centers human beings in nature coincides with the decline in anthropocentrism…
I think a lot of it is just lack of access to the natural word. You will not express what you have not experienced first hand.
There was also the style (at least in central Europe) by the end of XIX. century that combined technology with classical motives. Here Greek gods and heroes are riding a draisine (wall painting, Budapest Keleti Station): https://accidentallywesanderson.com/places/keleti-railway-station/
Absolutely love your use of art as an instrument to influence cultural narratives. I wrote an essay to the use of art as a powerful propaganda tool a while back (https://katiatarasava.substack.com/p/the-virus-that-changed-the-world) but mine is less optimistic... :)
I really enjoyed reading this. Not many people mentioned Thomas Carlyle these days; but he is worth reading. And I really liked your exploration of contemporary are in relation to the machine in the garden tradition.