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Description
Traditional Chinese landscape paintings are often intended to take the viewer (usually represented by a small figure in the painting) on a spiritual "journey" through the landscape. Often, the painter's goal is to impress upon the viewer how insignificant they are compared to the vastness of nature. Here, I wanted to flip that image on its head, creating a landscape that highlights the supposed dominance of modern man over nature.
At the same time, I wanted to delve into the 'dark side' of science. We often think of pure science -- the search for the absolute truths of the universe -- as a noble pursuit. We rarely consider how closely the search for knowledge is linked with the worst applications of that knowledge -- those that perpetuate evils again the environment and our fellow man. Take a close look at the painting to see many examples.
Quotes:
"It is only when science asks why, instead of simply describing how, that it becomes more than technology. When it asks why, it discovers relativity. When it only shows how, it invents the atom bomb, and then it puts its hand over its eye and says 'My God what have I done?'"
~Ursula Le Guin
"For I felt that no man has the right to decree so much suffering, and that science, in sharpening the knife and in upholding the ram, had incurred a guilt of which it will never get rid. It was at that time that the nexus between science and murder became clear to me."
~Erwin Chargaff
"We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living."
~Omar Nelson Bradley
"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
~J. Robert Oppenheimer, quoting the Bhagavad Gita
At the same time, I wanted to delve into the 'dark side' of science. We often think of pure science -- the search for the absolute truths of the universe -- as a noble pursuit. We rarely consider how closely the search for knowledge is linked with the worst applications of that knowledge -- those that perpetuate evils again the environment and our fellow man. Take a close look at the painting to see many examples.
Quotes:
"It is only when science asks why, instead of simply describing how, that it becomes more than technology. When it asks why, it discovers relativity. When it only shows how, it invents the atom bomb, and then it puts its hand over its eye and says 'My God what have I done?'"
~Ursula Le Guin
"For I felt that no man has the right to decree so much suffering, and that science, in sharpening the knife and in upholding the ram, had incurred a guilt of which it will never get rid. It was at that time that the nexus between science and murder became clear to me."
~Erwin Chargaff
"We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living."
~Omar Nelson Bradley
"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
~J. Robert Oppenheimer, quoting the Bhagavad Gita
Image size
3243x7001px 3.34 MB
© 2011 - 2024 Alsdale
Comments2
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This is a lovely choice of quotes, and I love how you worked it in. The way nature has science blended into it. All those little details that aren't what you would normally expect in this sort of picture. (Those are planes!)
And while I do support the pursuit of science, I've also realized that a lot of what is done becomes a two edged sword. It's not all 'let's see what we can do for the betterment of the world', there's also the concept of ... 'blow this up'. There was something I learned in a history class, certain tools of science such as calipers and measuring devices were also once considered tools of war.
And while I do support the pursuit of science, I've also realized that a lot of what is done becomes a two edged sword. It's not all 'let's see what we can do for the betterment of the world', there's also the concept of ... 'blow this up'. There was something I learned in a history class, certain tools of science such as calipers and measuring devices were also once considered tools of war.