Life After Man: Alexis Rockman

[Byssus]

Click thumbnails to view larger image. I'm ambivalent about Rockman's work as a whole, but his vision of the world three thousand years hence is nothing short of haunting; what awful grandeur there is to these landscapes, reclaimed from Man yet bearing the scars of his inspiration and hubris. In dredger-plowed canals and city lots, Rockwell reminds us, kudzu, cockroach, and too-many-limbed frog dutifully practice the lines we've scripted. The title of our play? Planet of Weeds (http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/Snuffit/planet.of.weeds1).

Manifest Destiny

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/8251/manifestdestinynn4.th.jpg (http://img169.imageshack.us/my.php?image=manifestdestinynn4.jpg)

Mount Rushmore

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/8774/mtrushmore475kg1.th.jpg (http://img167.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mtrushmore475kg1.jpg)

St. Louis Arch

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/4549/presentfutureawu1.th.jpg (http://img167.imageshack.us/my.php?image=presentfutureawu1.jpg)

Golden Gate Bridge

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/6526/presentfuturegiq3.th.jpg (http://img167.imageshack.us/my.php?image=presentfuturegiq3.jpg)

Les Champs-Élysées

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/5064/presentfuturefpk9.th.jpg (http://img167.imageshack.us/my.php?image=presentfuturefpk9.jpg)

Capitol Hill

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/7569/presentfuturechu1.th.jpg (http://img167.imageshack.us/my.php?image=presentfuturechu1.jpg)

Hollywood

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/6909/presentfuturehxe9.th.jpg (http://img167.imageshack.us/my.php?image=presentfuturehxe9.jpg)

[xmotor]

There is a new book out about this by some Jewish author. It sounds interesting.

It doesn't take long for nature to reclaim her own. I've visited mining districts where there was once huge complexes now hardly visible, all rotted away...

I imagine that sunken ships entombed in silt will create fossil casts or molds of the actual artifact. Perhaps the Bismarck be one of them....

[Byssus]

There is a new book out about this by some Jewish author. It sounds interesting.

Ah, yes -- The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman. All in all, it made for a rather intriguing read; Weisman's descriptions of the Korean DMZ, Chernobyl, and the last vestiges of primeval Polish forest were especially compelling.

[xmotor]

Ah, yes -- The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman. All in all, it made for a rather intriguing read; Weisman's descriptions of the Korean DMZ, Chernobyl, and the last vestiges of primeval Polish forest were especially compelling.

That's the book. I heard the author being interviewed and will read the book by and by. The concept is an intriguing and compelling one. In my own view, mankind's tenure on earth will be a relatively short one. We have stacked the cards against ourselves, ie. overpopulation, nuclear weapons, global pollution and resources exhaustion plus the complicated "system" that we all depend upon. A worldwide disaster could easily cause our extinction. That said, however, due to the fact that humans exists in just about every niche on the planet some remnant populations might survive on a tribal level, altho I hope not.

[Odysseus]

If nothing else they're pretty good.