We will sing of the vibrant nightly fervor of arsenals and shipyards blazing with violent electric moons.

July 28, 2011 6:24 PM

Industrial Scars: The Art of Environmental Pollution is a serious of gorgeous, abstract photographs by J Henry Fair of polluted industrial landscapes.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn (23 comments total)

See also Edward Burtynsky's Manufactured Landscapes
posted by Popular Ethics at 6:42 PM on July 28, 2011 [2 favorites]

Also was on The Morning News a few months ago. Saw the gallery shows referenced therein -- the prints really are terribly beautiful.
posted by sappidus at 6:48 PM on July 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Can it really be called 'pollution' if it improves the view? Isn't a mine full of of giant machines and Dante-like steps an improvement over blank desert?
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 6:55 PM on July 28, 2011

"terribly beautiful" sums it up...
posted by tomswift at 6:57 PM on July 28, 2011

Isn't a mine full of of giant machines and Dante-like steps an improvement over blank desert?

I love towering abandoned industrial Rube Goldberg machines in the middle of nowhere as much as the next guy, but I'm going to have to say... give me the endless, mind-emptying expanse of the desert any day.
posted by mykescipark at 7:00 PM on July 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Can it really be called 'pollution' if it improves the view?

You know that adage about how "there are no stupid questions"? It's not true.

Isn't a mine full of of giant machines and Dante-like steps an improvement over blank desert?

No.
posted by to sir with millipedes at 7:34 PM on July 28, 2011 [5 favorites]

Others have said it but bears repeating, it's a shame CO2 can't be photographed because it would be half the battle.
posted by stbalbach at 8:20 PM on July 28, 2011

Wow. Thanks for posting.
posted by kprincehouse at 8:22 PM on July 28, 2011

Yikes. This is serious.
posted by schmod at 8:50 PM on July 28, 2011

Thank you for the title of the post, too. I had to do a search: I hadn't read - or even heard of - the Manifesto of Futurism.

Good lord. Unbelieveable.
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 8:58 PM on July 28, 2011

Thank you for the title of the post, too. I had to do a search: I hadn't read - or even heard of - the Manifesto of Futurism.

Good lord. Unbelieveable.

It's been posted here a few times, and every year or so I read it. It crackles with energy, and though I only agree with about half of it how can you argue with phrases like 'Time and space died yesterday!' ? Its so inspiring.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 9:19 PM on July 28, 2011

LiB: "Isn't a mine full of of giant machines and Dante-like steps an improvement over blank desert?"

Y'know, I'm as ready as any other Australian to consider LiB a near-complete dickhead - but that's a fair question to ask, and one I'd happily answer 'yes' to in certain respects.

Just as, in certain respects, I'd agree with someone who considers a blank desert an improvement over a mine full of giant machines and Dante-like steps.

It all depends on the context of the question…
posted by Pinback at 10:19 PM on July 28, 2011

if you like those, you'll love these

(the lead-poison birth defects are particularly "beautiful")
posted by moorooka at 10:24 PM on July 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Previously.
posted by homunculus at 11:39 PM on July 28, 2011

Futurist wank is a poor cover for unexamined complexes.
posted by Horselover Phattie at 11:51 PM on July 28, 2011

Can it really be called 'pollution' if it improves the view?

Yes. The crime is not excused by the aesthetics of the crime scene.

And a troll riding a one-trick pony is still just a troll riding a one-trick pony, even if it amuses the kiddies at every matinée.
posted by pracowity at 12:11 AM on July 29, 2011

Can it really be called 'pollution' if it improves the view?

Yes. The crime is not excused by the aesthetics of the crime scene.

And a troll riding a one-trick pony is still just a troll riding a one-trick pony, even if it amuses the kiddies at every matinée.

I guess you can insert the morality of harming humans and other organisms here, but i don't think the earth cares too much.

I realize it's probably just tongue-in-cheek, but i think what he meant is that a frequent complaint about pollution is that it ruins the "beauty" of nature or whatever, so if it's creating different beauty, do the same complaints apply?

I don't really condone pollution and the destruction of habitats and the such, but it's the price you pay for living the life we live. The earth was once toxic for organisms like us, and it will be again in the future, and it still won't have given a shit. It's all chemistry and physics in the end.
posted by palbo at 2:44 AM on July 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

I guess you can insert the morality of harming humans and other organisms here, but i don't think the earth cares too much.

I know what you mean, but even looking at it entirely anthropocentrically, even looking at it entirely egocentrically, unnecessary pollution is wrong. Fucking up the earth fucks you up. Earth isn't some other place you don't have to worry about, some place you can admire from afar. You're made and constantly remade from the soil and air and water around you.

I don't really condone pollution and the destruction of habitats and the such, but it's the price you pay for living the life we live.

But be careful not to construct a false dilemma out of this: it is not the case that we either pollute and destroy without regard for our environment because we want to have iPads, or we return to living in caves and browsing the grasslands. For example, you could be a frequent flier and be responsible for shitloads more pollution than someone who doesn't fly but otherwise lives a life similar to yours. The price we pay environmentally for living the life you live may be ten times the price we pay for living the life I live (or vice versa -- I'm not making any claims about how you live).
posted by pracowity at 4:15 AM on July 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

Humans suck.
posted by bwg at 5:28 AM on July 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

I realize it's probably just tongue-in-cheek, but i think what he meant is that a frequent complaint about pollution is that it ruins the "beauty" of nature or whatever, so if it's creating different beauty, do the same complaints apply?

Exactly. I've spent an hour staring at ripped up posters. Its like people who want to eliminate grafitti versus those of us who think it adds to the city. If you scoff at the Futurist Manifesto ask yourself if you've ever admired a gorgeous sports car or piece of tech porn.
There's also a 'moral' component. The Earth has no morality or claim on it. The fact that our own actions can create such large scale change in the environment is itself beautiful, and if it leads to humanity destroying ourselves than at least we die by our own hand.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 5:28 AM on July 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't really condone pollution and the destruction of habitats and the such, but it's the price you pay for living the life we live.

But be careful not to construct a false dilemma out of this: it is not the case that we either pollute and destroy without regard for our environment because we want to have iPads, or we return to living in caves and browsing the grasslands.

Yeah, you're right about that, it's just that every time i start thinking of how cool it would be if everyone consumed less, could work less and live happily in the countryside eating freshly grown food and reading cool books etc. etc., but, you know, keeping some of the cool amenities provided by modernity, i always quickly spiral into how, in essence, it's a prohibitely complex systemic issue and how i'm not even close to smart or well-read enough. So i get frustrated, sigh and go back to talking out of my ass on the interwebs :P

I try to tone down on the consumism, buy very little useless crap and live a moderately frugal life, and i do try to err on the side of environmentally friendly solutions when it makes sense, etc. so i understand your point. What a world would be if common sense was actually common.

On the other hand, i think humanity destroying itself is also sort of beautiful, but i'm a watch-the-world-burn kinda guy.
posted by palbo at 5:52 AM on July 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

We are screwed arn't we! on the bright side when the planet is devoid of liveable atmosphere there will be loads of pretty things for aliens to take photos of... lol
posted by tection99 at 8:13 AM on July 29, 2011

Can it really be called 'pollution' if it improves the view? Isn't a mine full of of giant machines and Dante-like steps an improvement over blank desert?

Only if the viewers hate their frail, fallible bodies so much that that hate and fear extend to anything that reminds them of their mortality.

And only if the viewer assumes that a desert is "blank."

Industrial scenes and structures can indeed be beautiful. Just wanted to make that clear.
posted by rtha at 8:45 AM on July 29, 2011 [1 favorite]