Monday, March 17, 2014

imaginary future Crow #1


With apologies to both Jules Verne and the artists of old Final Fantasy games, I couldn't help but try to render one of Crow's visions of what it might be like to live in a world where people have finally found a level of technology in keeping with ecological balance. In this one we have my impression of a large, and admittedly Rococo, airship that has carried an audience to view a boat race. Okay, it will take some more work, but while I'm not very good at drawing architectural (or aeronautic) structures, I love the idea that eventually we'll find a way to live in harmony with the world.

per Crow*: The industrial economy that exists today can best be described in ecological terms as a scheme for turning resources into pollution at the highest possible rate. Resource exhaustion and pollution problems aren’t accidental outcomes of industrialism, they’re hardwired into the industrial system: the faster resources turn into pollution, the more the industrial economy prospers, and vice versa. It's become apparent the current situation helps nobody - including my non-human friends.

It seems worth considering that from the standpoint of the far future, industrialism may prove to have been only one early and inefficient form of what might eventually become an ecotechnic society. Of course, we both agree this distant future is very hard to imagine from our current perspective, but who, hundreds of years ago, could possibly have imagined air travel and cell phones?

Personally, I like to imagine air ships.
Back to the drawing board, but first
some music by crows^ arranged by
Jarbas Agnelli:

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.



* Crow often visits his friend the Archdruid while I simply read his latest post every week.
^ You already knew they're clever.

24 comments:

  1. Very steampunk picture (oldest dau taught me the word). I like it.

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    1. I love steampunk too. I've always thought Miyazaki has great steampunk elements in all his movies - Howl's Moving Castle is a good example.

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  2. I have often wondered what the arrangement of birds on overhead wires would sound like. I don't read music, so I never got any farther than wondering.

    I'm sure that is precisely how the crows would have sounded, intended to sound, but knew we bipeds wouldn't get it if they used their own voices.

    (Had a brief, but exhilarating, "conversation" with neighborhood crows last evening. It started with one of them cawing in a laughing fashion. I repeated it, added a sharp caw at the end, and waited. Two answered, the first one, repeating his laugh, and the second one repeating my sharp caw. We went back and forth like that for a couple more rounds - ala dueling banjos, each of us adding a different sound to what we started with - as they and friends drew closer to my yard. The conversation fell apart when one of their friends jumped in with a note that evidently the next in line, at which the original two chased the third one away. Game over, much crow-cursing ensued. I cracked up - so funny!)

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    1. ...wasn't the next...

      I especially like the observation decks on the airship. Crow has some of the best ideas, which you execute so well.

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  3. I'm sure those crows were sitting there waiting for someone to notice their intentional music score. I don't read it either, but I'm glad someone did.

    Your conversation with the neighborhood murder sounds hilarious. The crows are probably still chuckling about whatever rude things you likely said. Hopefully, it was interpreted as some scathing commentary about bankers and power elites in general.

    I'm glad you like the ship. Naturally, it was Crow who insisted on the observation decks. He likes being able to make a speedy getaway when necessary.

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  4. Ooh, I love the ship design (thanks Crow) and think it would be a great place to live and travel! Great drawing - you are too modest, Susan.

    As I started to watch the video, music notes immediately came to mind, then lo! there they were - wondrous indeed! Commenter The Crow's story is a great one - we all know do how smart crows are!

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  5. Wouldn't a Rococo airship with living accommodations, gardens and viewing platforms be wonderful? Crow is a genius; I simply follow instructions :)

    Yes, the video was such a delightful surprise to me too.

    Our mutual friend, The Crow, told a perfect story.

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  6. It would be amazing to see this airship flying over my head! And beats the noise, pollution and chemtrails, if they're real. I've never been sure but lately the trails DONT Oy quit on me... XXXX

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  7. And I'm stealing that video! 😊

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    1. Yes! Tall stately ships with banners flying passing over the landscape would be a dream come true. It would indeed be cool, my friend.

      You are welcome to the video :)
      xoxo

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  8. I will make no comment about environment, technology, resources or population etc.. I will say, however, that it is truly a fine airship.

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    1. I like to think we're not seeing the end, but simply a stage on the way to something better.

      I'm happy you like the idea of the airship.

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  9. I would rather vacation on an air ship then take a cruse. Air ships seem so laid back - a chance to enjoy the travel: the destination being unimportant. Crow would understand.
    the Ol'Buzzard

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    1. Rather than making the world smaller with super high-speed air travel, I think we'd all be better off (and enjoy the place more) if the world got bigger again. I have a feeling you'll agree, as does Crow.

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  10. What a wonderful picture to go with your commentary. I trust the magnificent Airship you have depicted is a hybrid as I have heard the standard versions can use up a lot of energy!
    But possibly Crow adds some of his own wind power to the ship in its travels abroad?
    Best wishes

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    1. I'm happy you liked it, Lindsay. Now I'm thinking of using parts of it as a basis for a new painting. I rather like the idea of some as yet undiscovered force that would fly my Rococo airship.

      'Rest assured,' says Crow, 'no birds will labour to propel this craft'.

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  11. Whenever I come to think of it, I find it so interesting that Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg, better known as Novalis, already almost exactly 200 years ago felt the necessity to commend his contemporaries to exercise slowness.

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    1. A wise man, obviously. I loved that the Natural Philosophers and Romantics saw the whole universe as a unitary, living being - best to be enjoyed.

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  12. HI Susan
    Aeros is developing a new cargo airship, the Aeroscraft -- a hybrid dirigible combining elements of regular "lighter-than-air" (LTA) craft and traditional fixed-wing planes
    b/wishes
    http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/09/business/airship-cargo-revolutionize-arctic-transportation/,

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    1. Hi Lindsay
      Yes, now that you mention it I do remember having seen news about the Aeroscraft. Let's hope they can get their business off the ground :)
      Best wishes

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  13. fascinating video and musical composition.

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  14. Birds are musical. :) I have been listening to them sing outside my window for hours this morning.

    I don't think I could go up in the airship or fly, as I am not a bird, and I'm quite afraid of heights.

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  15. You lucky woman you :) We're on another blizzard watch so everybody, including the birds, is hunkered down.

    Well, there's nobody getting me in a balloon and that's for sure.

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