Chapter XCIV: Art Fart (An Internal Dialogue)

Image of the Day: springagain, by phillipmo (flickr.com)

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Me: Check out this awesome picture; it represents the dehumanizing effect of industrial society.

Myself: Whatever, man...you say that about everything.

Me: I'm serious! The element in the bottom right is a giant gear and that bird has a hopeless look in its eye. I think it's about to jump to its death to get away from the all-consuming machine.

Myself: The bird doesn't have a "hopeless" look; it's just stylized. Moreover, birds have wings, so it wouldn't die if it jumped off. And besides, how does a suicidal bird speak about deHUMANization?

Me: Well, wings won't help when it takes off into that void; there's no coming back from there--clearly a metaphor for death. You could be right about the bird/human dichotomy, though.

Myself: Could be?

Me: Like you said, it's stylized. Maybe it doesn't symbolize a real bird, but rather the cuckoo in a cuckoo clock, which is the ultimate expression of subjugation to industrialism. Birds usually represent freedom, but a cuckoo's movements are totally determined by the gears inside the clock. The loss of freedom to a mechanical overlord is the very essence of dehumanization, is it not?

Myself: You just went off the deep end, buddy.

Me: Fine smarty-pants, what's your grand interpretation?

Myself: Quite simply, it's a statement about sustainable design. The spiral element is a tree viewed in Plan (see the leaves?), and taken together with the bird and the profusive use of green, it represents Nature with a capital 'N.' There are two implied yin-yangs, one in the center, and again in the dangly-bobs in the bottom left of the spiral. Those go toward the idea of harmony with nature. Likewise the infinity symbol at the very center.

Me: And the void on the left?

Myself: A matter of composition.

And I: You're both missing the point. The most important element here is the curve of the bird's tail, which, combined with its eye, forms a question mark. The image as a whole is a comment about the ambivalence every person faces as he struggles to define himself in this world. At what point is he prepared to abandon the entelechial past for the uncertainty of the future? From a Deconstructionist viewpoint, the image's unconventional dimensions (1217 x 727) reflect this theme also. Ultimately, it is only by taking flight into the unknown that we can really discover who we are.

Myself: That's Deep.

Me: I still like my idea better.