Aesthetics of Exploration

If you need a reason why the space program is a worthy cause, (rather than "feeding people", for example) here is exhibit A.



Space exploration, like science, is art. Whatever the cost of the Hubble, it's results are much more aesthetically profound than anything Hollywood has made in recent memory.

If we get new foam rubber, or astronaut ice cream, or nanotech from NASA, that's cool too. But as long as they keep producing these amazing videos AND GIVING THEM AWAY FOR FREE, UNRESTRICTED USE TO ANY PERSON ON EARTH, they can keep using tax money as far as I'm concerned.

Hollywood, on the other hand, should probably give all the money they would have spent on the next new teen buddy picture to their Darfur campaign.

[video discovered courtesy of the always excellent Posthuman Blues]

From the Ashes Rise...

A fellow named 'Fuzheado' has a good Flickr stream of the destroyed CCTV building, the one burning in my post from yesterday. I would give you a taste, but its Flickr, so I can't copy a picture. Just go take a look.

It intrigued me that in this stream (and most photos currently circulating), the shots are almost entirely of the smaller structure, because of course, it is the one that burned, and the one which people want to look at. However, yesterday when I was searching for the "before" pictures of the CCTV complex in my post, the one I used was the only one I could find showing the smaller structure even a little bit, and its barely in the shot! That's because the giant loop is much more interesting and stunning in a photo--at least, until yesterday.

So isn't that interesting? In destruction, the lesser tower suddenly becomes the bigger building, at least in the networked image-verse. And since it was never used, its informational content is all that it is!--its functionality is in its ideational consumption!

BLDGBLOG would probably say something like: "The super-structural, conflagurative destruction in architectural space serves as a foundational, symbolic reconstruction in architectural time!" Except he would probably say something correct, rather than just being a jerk like me :)