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Hi everyone, I thought I’d share my responses to the provocation here too.
Recently I’ve been looking into more sci-fi/outer space sources and images (instead of focusing on the natural history, though it is still very intertwined) as I’ve always had an interest in the concepts of time and human existence.
I started looking at the very strange images and audio selected to be placed on the Golden Record of NASA’s Voyager, which was sent out to space for extraterrestrials to discover, decode and essentially, understand our planet and race just from this selection. They decided not to include anything like disease, war, or famine, poverty, ideology, or religion. The first image that stood out to me was this one titled ‘Demonstration of Licking, Eating, and Drinking’. This is really what the aliens will see, so peculiar and strangely comical.
Another section of the record includes greetings in many different languages. The majority of them are what you would expect, some short some long, hello, we welcome you, etc etc. The only English greeting on there was recorded by Nick Sagan (the son of Carl Sagan) at age 6, that is very eerie and almost feels like we are truly living in a sci-fi universe. The child’s voice says, ‘Hello from the children of planet Earth.’ (attached) I just felt that the whole idea of the Golden Record is bizarre and it’s making me look at human nature in a bigger picture, zoomed out, thinking about how these small group of ‘humans’, zoomed in, at this point in time, wished they’d be seen from the mysterious outer space.
For the next one I have to mention one of my favourite (pre-Ghibli but still Miyazaki) films Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, which seems even more relevant now in its themes of the uncertain future / post apocalyptic / devastation of the world’s ecosystems / the Sea of Decay which is poisonous to humans without a mask on.
It is a film that explicitly expresses the concern of human/nature relationships (like my favourite Ghibli film, Princess Mononoke does, which is also very beautiful and relevant) throughout the film we see interactions of most people being aggressive towards the creatures that reside there (mostly insect like creatures and huge ones called Ohm), and it is in the protagonist that we see a real sense of warmth and genuine belief that we can bridge the gap and co-exist in peace. It’s a very heart-warming and ‘hopelessly hopeful’ film that really makes you see that from the goodness of the heart humanity might not be all bad after all - all mixed with perhaps a sense of the sublime from the protagonist. Of course, I am very inspired by its wonderful range of imagery and composition, and I collected many film stills in my archive of images.
Next is an artist and his life-long project that has always been at the back of my mind, Charles Avery’s ‘The Islanders’.
“In 2004, Charles Avery embarked on what will be a lifelong project titled The Islanders: a painstakingly detailed description of a fictional world that functions in parallel to our own universe, realised in drawing, painting, sculpture and text. These large-scale, narrative drawings and sculptural installations question our ideas about the nature of time, place and being.”
I’ve listened to an interview of Avery and the writer Lavinia Greenlaw which was very useful (on BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000g43y) - he said that this invented space is simultaneously a place of escape and protection, somewhere he needs to go to be isolated. What really hit me was when he said that the island is ‘not a fantasy land, it’s just another place’ suggesting that this world exists on the same timeline as everything else that is real to him. Sort of as real as dreams are as they are essentially collages our subconscious makes from the thoughts and material we consume in day-to-day life.
They also touch on drawing as a way of investigation (which I'm doing a lot more now, drawing), the idea of discovery and wonder, the uncanny/almost-familiar, the impossibility of perfection, and of course the meaning of ‘abandonment’, which I feel really speaks to this pandemic planet we are on, the places, things, and narratives we’ve abandoned and almost forgotten, like a distant dream I’m not sure I want to return to and pick up from. Anyway, sorry this was so long but I have had so many inspiring ‘cultural artefacts’ that have impacted me everyday and I’ve been detailing this in my research journal. I hope everyone’s well and managing to create meaningful work in this point in time. Thanks!
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