|
The Shape of Things to Come, Declassified
The Shape of Things to Come, Declassified
2006
20 by 12 inches
Digital Painting
Based on a photo from the “Hanford Historical Photo Declassification Project”.
Click on the image to view larger version in a separate browser window.
The original photo is from the 1956 Frontier Days Parade. Camp Hanford was established by the Army in 1951 for the air defense of the Hanford plant. It closed in 1961.
For some reason I always had the impression that Sci Fi was big in Richland and that it was because of the preponderance of scientists. Maybe it was just because my father was a scientist and for a long while read a good bit of Sci Fi.
But Sci Fi was certainly part of the culture. I remember the great fuss that surrounded the debut of Star Trek. I've no idea what watching Star Trek felt like elsewhere in the late 60s, but in Richland, from what I recollect, the show seemed to be viewed as home movies from the future. More than that, I retain the impression that with the debut of Star Trek it was believed that the greater public was getting it (or would possibly get it with Hollywood's help) that science was the answer, the hope for the future. Science would set religion straight and provide a moral base for a universal community. Science, by reason of its progressiveness, was egoless, selfless, pure, and even its errors a benefit to humanity through the essential sacrifice of a few for the many. Were corporations and big business an apparent driving factor in the future that was Star Trek? No. And it wasn't just because labels were taboo on television and in film at that time. Product in Star Trek existed only as a means for enrichment and not for business. Money simply didn't factor into the future.
The below float shows those thoughts on progress. The "past" section shows someone portraying an American Indian on grassland. The "present" shows I guess a wheat field. The "future" shows a rocket.
The projected future reflected the great faith in atomic power. Power would be cheap, would be available to all, would be available without restriction, and that cheap, unrestricted availability of power meant, queerly, an escapist release from the bonds of Earth. The mentality was not much different from the Pearly Gates and Gates of Gold vision, though was one in which the Heavens were attained without death.
Through the atom we would step into the Great Beyond away from Hell which was a perishing, overpopulated planet. In some scenarios the Earth, freed, would return to a state of Eden, functioning--for those catapulted to the stars--as a distant anchor to humanity. But that restoration was viewed as coming only after humanity had freed itself of Earth. And maybe this played a part in disregard for what was happening here. Not so different from religions which believe in an essential and imminent apocalypse, which gives little cause to think ahead to the next seven generations and how current actions may be played out in their lives. Just as "In Jesus Christ" was the great password, With science there would never be a reason to pay the piper because by the time the piper came calling, the princess would be able to call its name, Rumplestiltskin, and banish immediately all debt.
The float in this picture draws, indeed, more on elfen tales than science. I painted the costumes purple but I'd the feeling that a deep forest, Martian green figured at least subconsciously.
Why the projected future costume of a woman would include a veil, I don't know, but isn't it interesting that the male here is showing chest and leg while the woman is entirely covered in fabric with a seeming Nights of Arabia twist?
|
