The World Without Us

Q: Your new book, THE WORLD WITHOUT US, poses a fascinating, extraordinary thought experiment: if you take every living human off the Earth, what traces of us would linger and what would disappear? It asks what might happen to our world if humans vanished? What was the inspiration for your book?

A: "For a long time I’ve sought some fresh, non-threatening approach to disarm readers’ apprehensions about environmental destruction long enough that they might consider the impacts of unbridled human activity on the rest of nature – and on our own fate. I’ve found that theoretically wiping humans off the face of the earth intrigues rather than frightens people."

Weisman, Alan (July 10, 2007). The World Without Us. New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press.

www.WorldWithoutUs.com

Searching for a topic, I ran across this website that spoke about the book, The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman.  Although I have not yet read the book, I was able to preview some excerpts as well as these interesting videos that covered the basic topics.  His writings question the impact of human interaction with the Earth, a glimpse into the future.  At first it seems pretty overwhelming to take in, and the writing itself sometimes seems far fetched in some ways, but non the less, still quite possible.  What interests me the most is his explanation of what the Earth would be like without humans and the tremendous capacity of the planet to heal itself.  "Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; what of our everyday stuff may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe."

In relation to my work, I have been debating on whether or not to include animals into my images.  According to Weisman, animals play a huge role in Earth life after humans within the first few hundred years.  With that, I may be leaning more towards including this type of life into my imagery.  If not, it would still be interesting to experiment with and could possibly take my work in another direction... But i definitely plan on reading the rest of this book, it may help me in visualizing possible images.

Dr. Robert Lang Lecture 1/26

A successful engineer and physicist, Dr. Robert Lang is now a full time origami artist.  What fascinates me most about Lang is that he is an artist that is also lucky enough to be blessed with the ability to understand complicated mathematics.  With that, mathematics is a huge part of his success in origami making.  He has been practicing origami for over 30 years and is recognized as a master of the art of origami, one of the world's leading origami artists.  His designs are greatly detailed and because of that they are so realistic.  He has designed hundreds of original pieces, of which his monumental origami is most impressive.  I had no clue that origami could be created on a large scale, life-size and even larger than life size.  I really love the installation he created called, "Magician Transforming Paper into a Bird."  It shows the progression of the transformation of paper into a crane, installed at the Zeum Museum in San Francisco.  

Giacomo Costa

Bio

• Born in Florence in 1970
• Currently lives and works in Florence

His Work

• "He lives freely without pressure. Nevertheless, it turns out that in his creation, elements stemming from his past experiences co-exist acutely. So this passion takes shape in his creations of structures, disproportionate buildings, the solitude that finds form in the absence of human shape, the all powerful man-made wall; gigantic, unbridgeable, separating all.
  
  The use of 3d technology allows him a total freedom and as a painter he first poses a form and then with the inspiration he composes. Thus an image can take weeks for him, up until recomposing. Breaking it up, to recreate the space and thus his work on the same creation can last several months.
  
  Like he specified to us during our interveiw, his creations are realistic and at the same time, they are not. In some of his creations, one sees multiple themes, like the problems of environment, the loneliness of the great urban settings, the gigantism which takes along the world, of the cities separated down the middle by a metaphysical wall or flooded under water.
  
  For Giacomo what counts is that everyone sees what they have a desire for seeing. He leaves free interpretation open for each one of us, positive or negative."-Fine Art TV

I love that this work was described as atypical ..

Website

Arthur Roger Gallery

Press Release

Green Urban and Suburban Spaces

"Let us a little permit Nature to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs than we." ~Michel de Montaigne, translated

Golonu, Berin. "Greening the Revolution." Art Papers: Striking Ideas+Moving Images+Smart Text. November/December 2008, pp.38-44

This article is in reference to the green movement that is rapidly spreading, and catching on to those who are interested in the preservation and rehabilitation of the environment.  Although creating green atmospheres in urban and suburban spaces is occurring in other parts of the world, Berin makes an interesting observation that this green initiative is most relevant in the United States, as it "has one of the largest carbon footprints on the globe." Activists, farmers, environmentalists all play huge roles, while artists are leading the cause by producing a glimpse into the future of what our "green and bountiful" cities may look like.  WORK Architecture company has been working in collaboration to build a fully sustainable farm in an urban courtyard (including the chickens), for the purpose of hosting a fundraiser to gain support for their efforts.  This collaboration included over thirty artists, designers, engineers, farms, and green suppliers.

Some question the idea of art effectively producing practical solutions to the current concerns of our environment, and in the article it is argued that what was created was actually art or not. The way I see it, this huge collaboration created something that forced the community to raise questions, which will almost force everyone who sees it to be immersed in its process, even if it only involves becoming aware of the efforts of others to create a more green society.  In my work, I am creating photographs that illustrate futuristic abundance of "green" .. where nature is dominant and urban structures are set on the back burner.  

Andy Goldsworthy

Bio

• Born in Cheshire, England 1956
• Attended Bradford Art College 1974-75
• B.A. Preston Polytechnic, Lancaster Annex, Lancashire 1975-78
• His work is sculpture based but taken to another realm through his photography.

His Work

Goldsworthy's innovative creations with natural elements "produce uniquely personal and intense" pieces of art.  Using elements found in nature such as snow, ice, leaves, bark, rock, clay, stones, feathers, petals and twigs he builds outdoor sculptures that interact with their environment.  As described, his work creates a sympathetic contact with the natural world, as his work disappears the process his documented by his work in "superb color photographs."

"Goldsworthy deliberately explores the tension of working in the area where he finds his materials, and is undeterred by changes by changes in the weather which may melt a spectacular ice arch or wash away a delicate structure of grasses. The intention is not to “make his mark” on the landscape, but rather to work with it instinctively, so that a delicate scene of bamboo or massive snow rings or a circle of leaves floating in a pool create a new perception and an ever growing understanding of the land."

(Hollis, Jill, Cameron, Ian. Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature, New York: Harry N. Abrams Incorporated, 1990)

I chose Andy Goldsworthy's art because of the life he is able to portray within these natural objects.  Energy and space are crucial.  He recognizes that change is the key to understanding his work.  Parallel to my work this past semester, portraying nature as the dominant force is one of the main concepts I am working with as well as changing environments.  Human interaction is present with Goldsworthy's manmade natural objects, which is an interesting opposition to my incorporation of synthetic manmade objects.  His creations are powerful and his photographs are striking.

Interview with TIME

Gallery Lelong

Andy Goldsworthy

PDN Photo Annual Submission

PRINTS

Paul-

I have been working on two completely new images and decided to scrap the one with the dandelions all together. Your opinion on the first and second images would be great, I'm pretty confident in the first, but am not so sure the second fits as well because of the lens distortion that isn't present in any of the others. - as well as the actual birds.  As far as the third image goes, I took your advice and covered up some of the bright white in the clouds, as well as worked on making the foreground with the fence less flat- I also decided to ditch the idea of the texture over the red brick and just mute the color a little. So hopefully its working better?  The fourth image i just slightly altered, making the building larger and the background more out of focus....  My major issue is with the last image.  I decided that the sign being so close to the front of the image wasn't allowing my eye to move into the background, so i just pushed it back, and took the layer with the ivy off, the original lighting made it pop a bit more.  I also added some shadows in the foreground, It was a simple solution and I think it looks a lot better, but I still am not completely sure thats enough.  Do you think It would be in my best interest to just try to put together a totally different image in its place?  

Thanks for your feedback!

Carrie