Survival…,
this single word pretty much sums up the reason for the astonishing rise of humans since eons.
Survival has driven humans to stand atop the Earth as it’s foremost in intelligence and with the tool called “Technology”, we now stand at an impasse of sheer might that grants us an illusion of supreme control over elements of nature.
True, the most outrageous thing that can possibly threaten man’s survival today is the much bandied term of “Global Warming” and already groups of distinguished people are coming together to combat it in the most unheard of ways; which says a lot about the basic human instinct for survival at any cost, even if the enemy this time is not a fellow specie but the brute force of the earth and its elements itself!
Considering that we have the least minimum awareness about the disasters happening around us, the question that comes to mind is…Is the enemy this time too much even for Humans??
Probing this question and looking into the future through a multitude of lenses are people that come from diverse backgrounds.
The viewpoint of artists is what interests me the most, since well, even if their work does take creative liberties and dilutes the truth at times, the common guy or girl is more likely to be influenced by an artistic masterpiece than a whitepaper!!
The argument is more in their favor if we also consider the number of people that the artist can reach out to, than a conventional report.
There are numerous pieces of work on the subject yet distinguished from one another with just the artist’s touch of elegance, either differing in the context or the way in which the central issue is addressed.
I consider three works from varying sources, them being
1. La Maison En Petits Cubes [the house of small cubes]-a short animated film
2. WALL-E - A hugely successful film by PIXAR
3. HOTEL-A manga, or rather a Japanese comic of 40 page length
I assume everyone has seen WALL-E,
La Maison can be seen here
http://vodpod.com/watch/1668659-la-maison-en-petits-cubes
OR
http://vodpod.com/watch/1652528-la-maison-en-petites-cubes
http://vimeo.com/9768572
OR
http://shortsbay.com/film/la-maison-en-petites-cubes
OR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX0Dvtvev1E
The manga HOTEL can be read her, click on the page to get to the next page
Read the panels from RIGHT to LEFT
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/hotel/v01/c001/
Each of these touches the central issue in various ways,
La Maison is a commendable masterpiece for evoking the warmest feelings inside of us even with each second of it portraying the deplorable state of the world, though only as a backdrop!
Here is a film in which the most striking themes are the resolute old man, his colorful past life and the way in which each nostalgic flashback leads to him remembering not the world being engulfed by its own oceans, but rather the sweet moments with his family!
Since his young days show a world that is happy and at bliss, contrasting his old life atop tottering piles of “cubes” amidst the ever rising ocean, this film is a viewpoint to at most a few hundred years into the future only.
Nevertheless, this is a humane approach to the future, which uses global warming as a mere background.
Now, coming to WALL-E
The 1.5 hour movie has its main say in portraying the love story between the lonely titular robot and the highly advanced EVE with the humans being introduced only in the second half of the movie!
Considering the state of the earth as seen in the beginning of the movie, it is around 700 years since the time humans abandoned it.
Now, what’s interesting here is that the humans leave at the end of 21st century due to manic consumerism that has covered the earth in trash, but the point is that since the humans are out of the picture early on and the earth entrusted to “Clean-Up Robots”, the earth as seen 700 years after all this is a steaming wasteland with junk of mega-proportions.
That is, the city is thankfully not engulfed in water but it’s in a debatably worse condition!
For both of the above, we have only the humans to thank, since their departure must have reduced emissions to a certain extent but their past possessions now fill much of the earth.
The story has a highly optimistic happy ending that makes us feel that maybe, just maybe, humanity might learn from its mistakes and start a responsible existence anew!
HOTEL
Finally, the art form that differs is a 40 page comic that takes huge leaps of time as you flip each page….
This story depicts everything that an “indestructible” tower has to go through in the years to come and the years envisioned are not in the scale of hundreds but of several millennia!
The underlying message right from the 1st panel is that humanity is at a dead end, and all its efforts to stay afloat are hopeless.
Much like WALL-E, a space ship does leave earth at the cusp of its destruction, but it is filled with DNA strands of humans rather than humans themselves, with its target being a planet 1.27 Million light years away!
The second strand of the story and the focus of the comic is the “HOTEL” that is constructed on Antarctica to preserve the DNA records of the existing species….except that of humans!!
Frankly, considering the selfish nature of man, the acceptance of this proposal is more of a wonder to me, even if this is a fictional comic!
We see another creative liberty taken with names of real world personas being used like Keira Knightley and Louis Armstrong.
The viewpoint is throughout from the “eyes” of “Louis” and it considers Prof.Anno as its father and Keira as its mother!
Curiously, the gradual end of humanity is never shown graphically and it goes by with a montage of “What a beautiful World”, which is pure irony considering the songs up-lifting lyrics.
After this, each panel represents a time leap of a few hundred years that is already out of range for a human to envision.
As Louis upgrades its own parts, which is analogous to a teenager getting college education, it harks back to the finer things in life remembering its father and the marvel called Aurora.
Time leap of 3 millennium later, we see the fabled meteors from outer space raining down relentlessly to pound the earth repeatedly.
The steps Louis takes to combat the current crisis and the way it plans to overcome such problems in the future are so very human, that it is heartwarmingly nostalgic in a way, considering that humans are gone forever now.
As it sets Goals for itself, time passes by like a mirage, ever moving and 120k years later, the tower still stands!
My imagination of an Ice Age was certainly shattered by knowing that its average temp was 245 Celsius!
The time leaps now become exponential and the tower is seen to have a “Mid-Life Crisis” questioning its path and wallowing it its own thoughts.
It makes a final fight-back against the ruthless nature, in its final “Twilight years”, but loses most of its “modules” and all appears hopeless as the miracle of rain jerks it back to reality or rather its imagination!
The final pages of the manga reveal the true passage of time since the 1st page and it would understandably leave one dumbstruck since an average guy can’t even plan ahead for a few days!
Its experienced words of wisdom to the young systems around it serve as the final eulogy for Louis’ Grand lifetime.
Its conclusion reminds of the strong will of humans to survive and imbues me with the hope that things won’t go as bleakly as foretold by these artists.
In conclusion, the way in which an individual reacts or is influenced by these masterpieces may differ, but the underlying core of all these remains the same and in the end, it is my utmost wish that it prods everyone to make themselves aware of which point of history the Human civilization stands at and what needs to be done to ensure its survival.
this single word pretty much sums up the reason for the astonishing rise of humans since eons.
Survival has driven humans to stand atop the Earth as it’s foremost in intelligence and with the tool called “Technology”, we now stand at an impasse of sheer might that grants us an illusion of supreme control over elements of nature.
True, the most outrageous thing that can possibly threaten man’s survival today is the much bandied term of “Global Warming” and already groups of distinguished people are coming together to combat it in the most unheard of ways; which says a lot about the basic human instinct for survival at any cost, even if the enemy this time is not a fellow specie but the brute force of the earth and its elements itself!
Considering that we have the least minimum awareness about the disasters happening around us, the question that comes to mind is…Is the enemy this time too much even for Humans??
Probing this question and looking into the future through a multitude of lenses are people that come from diverse backgrounds.
The viewpoint of artists is what interests me the most, since well, even if their work does take creative liberties and dilutes the truth at times, the common guy or girl is more likely to be influenced by an artistic masterpiece than a whitepaper!!
The argument is more in their favor if we also consider the number of people that the artist can reach out to, than a conventional report.
There are numerous pieces of work on the subject yet distinguished from one another with just the artist’s touch of elegance, either differing in the context or the way in which the central issue is addressed.
I consider three works from varying sources, them being
1. La Maison En Petits Cubes [the house of small cubes]-a short animated film
2. WALL-E - A hugely successful film by PIXAR
3. HOTEL-A manga, or rather a Japanese comic of 40 page length
I assume everyone has seen WALL-E,
La Maison can be seen here
OR
http://vimeo.com/9768572
OR
http://shortsbay.com/film/la-maison-en-petites-cubes
OR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX0Dvtvev1E
The manga HOTEL can be read her, click on the page to get to the next page
Read the panels from RIGHT to LEFT
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/hotel/v01/c001/
Each of these touches the central issue in various ways,
La Maison is a commendable masterpiece for evoking the warmest feelings inside of us even with each second of it portraying the deplorable state of the world, though only as a backdrop!
Here is a film in which the most striking themes are the resolute old man, his colorful past life and the way in which each nostalgic flashback leads to him remembering not the world being engulfed by its own oceans, but rather the sweet moments with his family!
Since his young days show a world that is happy and at bliss, contrasting his old life atop tottering piles of “cubes” amidst the ever rising ocean, this film is a viewpoint to at most a few hundred years into the future only.
Nevertheless, this is a humane approach to the future, which uses global warming as a mere background.
Now, coming to WALL-E
The 1.5 hour movie has its main say in portraying the love story between the lonely titular robot and the highly advanced EVE with the humans being introduced only in the second half of the movie!
Considering the state of the earth as seen in the beginning of the movie, it is around 700 years since the time humans abandoned it.
Now, what’s interesting here is that the humans leave at the end of 21st century due to manic consumerism that has covered the earth in trash, but the point is that since the humans are out of the picture early on and the earth entrusted to “Clean-Up Robots”, the earth as seen 700 years after all this is a steaming wasteland with junk of mega-proportions.
That is, the city is thankfully not engulfed in water but it’s in a debatably worse condition!
For both of the above, we have only the humans to thank, since their departure must have reduced emissions to a certain extent but their past possessions now fill much of the earth.
The story has a highly optimistic happy ending that makes us feel that maybe, just maybe, humanity might learn from its mistakes and start a responsible existence anew!
HOTEL
Finally, the art form that differs is a 40 page comic that takes huge leaps of time as you flip each page….
This story depicts everything that an “indestructible” tower has to go through in the years to come and the years envisioned are not in the scale of hundreds but of several millennia!
The underlying message right from the 1st panel is that humanity is at a dead end, and all its efforts to stay afloat are hopeless.
Much like WALL-E, a space ship does leave earth at the cusp of its destruction, but it is filled with DNA strands of humans rather than humans themselves, with its target being a planet 1.27 Million light years away!
The second strand of the story and the focus of the comic is the “HOTEL” that is constructed on Antarctica to preserve the DNA records of the existing species….except that of humans!!
Frankly, considering the selfish nature of man, the acceptance of this proposal is more of a wonder to me, even if this is a fictional comic!
We see another creative liberty taken with names of real world personas being used like Keira Knightley and Louis Armstrong.
The viewpoint is throughout from the “eyes” of “Louis” and it considers Prof.Anno as its father and Keira as its mother!
Curiously, the gradual end of humanity is never shown graphically and it goes by with a montage of “What a beautiful World”, which is pure irony considering the songs up-lifting lyrics.
After this, each panel represents a time leap of a few hundred years that is already out of range for a human to envision.
As Louis upgrades its own parts, which is analogous to a teenager getting college education, it harks back to the finer things in life remembering its father and the marvel called Aurora.
Time leap of 3 millennium later, we see the fabled meteors from outer space raining down relentlessly to pound the earth repeatedly.
The steps Louis takes to combat the current crisis and the way it plans to overcome such problems in the future are so very human, that it is heartwarmingly nostalgic in a way, considering that humans are gone forever now.
As it sets Goals for itself, time passes by like a mirage, ever moving and 120k years later, the tower still stands!
My imagination of an Ice Age was certainly shattered by knowing that its average temp was 245 Celsius!
The time leaps now become exponential and the tower is seen to have a “Mid-Life Crisis” questioning its path and wallowing it its own thoughts.
It makes a final fight-back against the ruthless nature, in its final “Twilight years”, but loses most of its “modules” and all appears hopeless as the miracle of rain jerks it back to reality or rather its imagination!
The final pages of the manga reveal the true passage of time since the 1st page and it would understandably leave one dumbstruck since an average guy can’t even plan ahead for a few days!
Its experienced words of wisdom to the young systems around it serve as the final eulogy for Louis’ Grand lifetime.
Its conclusion reminds of the strong will of humans to survive and imbues me with the hope that things won’t go as bleakly as foretold by these artists.
In conclusion, the way in which an individual reacts or is influenced by these masterpieces may differ, but the underlying core of all these remains the same and in the end, it is my utmost wish that it prods everyone to make themselves aware of which point of history the Human civilization stands at and what needs to be done to ensure its survival.
Quite a few thoughts to share...
ReplyDelete1)Impeccable ingenuity & sublime flair shown in presenting a common phenomenon like global hazards with a medium like art! Only a few rare specimens of homo sapiens possess this ability!
2)Liked the way you have projected the intricate facts in the artefacts that make a good relevance to the current crisis of nature.
3)Wall-E, for me, was just a sensational, hilarious lovestory of "more-than-humans".Never bothered to ponder anymore on that movie. But you have interestingly highlighted on the unseen gravity of the story.brilliant.
What caught my fancy was your description of "Hotel".The indestructible tower, the "Hotel" in antarctica housing the DNA records,the 120k yrs later picture, the 245 celsius "Ice-age", wow they were superb.i'm all penchanted.
All-in-all, it was like running thru a new-age connoisseur's file depicting the intricate links between electronic/ modern art & mother nature. Too good. Keep it going... :)