The Dag Lab Works!
9-9-2005
Last week, I took the day off to test out the Daguerreotype lab and everything checks out great! I made one quarter-plate proof-of-concept piece and another quarter-plate as a gift. I am down to my last usable blank plate so I’ll be ordering some new materials soon.
I’ve been thinking lately about the legacy of humanity: our structures and writing. Humans first started meandering around the Americas about 11,000 years ago and we don’t know much of their culture, do we? Who were these humans? It’s not until the written word comes to being by way of the Greeks and the Romans that some of the legacy of the society can be preserved. Like it or not, our history books are full of assumptions: some more scientific than others. The assumptions we make about societies long-since deceased are the public opinion and the evidence, supporting or dissenting, is sparse. If we extend this observation out of the past and into the future, what will be our legacy? The written record has long-since become a cherished artform but the new method of depiction has shifted from chirography to typing (or, more repulsively, from calligraphy to blogging). My artistic vision isn’t about the waning legacy of the written word, however. My interest is in the remains of our labor: architecture and the city.
Call it morbid, call it pessimistic, call it what you will, but I love to imagine the death of a city. I’ve read about cities that have suffered from swift emigration en masse wherein such artifacts as coffee and pastries remained unfinished on kitchen tables. The cataclysmic “End is Nigh” circumstance is just a possibility and, though fascinating in its own right, isn’t my focus. When humanity is gone, wiped out and possibly supplanted, what will be thought of us by those that come later? Will the facades of empty Wal-Mart stores be unearthed in 11,000 years and hypothesized as enormous houses of worship? Why wouldn’t they? After all, it’s only the scientific assumption made by a historian without all of the facts. See if that keeps you awake tonight.
-Jonathan
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.shinyphotos.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.shinyphotos.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Google]](http://www.shinyphotos.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.shinyphotos.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://www.shinyphotos.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.shinyphotos.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://www.shinyphotos.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)