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A review by juliana_aldous
The Last Pictures by Trevor Paglen
2.0
A vanity project with an interesting premise--what If we were all gone and all that was left orbiting the earth were satellites? The author created a time capsule and chose 100 photos to be etched in silicon to be deposited in a satellite to represent us. Nice premise--think back to Carl Sagan and Nasa's addition to rockets such as Voyager to give a hello.
But I found the choice of photos to be a joke--literally. In the intro there is talk that it is ludicrous to think that any "other" coming across our rockets would have the same mathematics and be able to interpret our images and maps. The author mentions one sort of puzzling drawing in the caves of Lascaux. And so I assume based on this he and others gathered together a most random set of 100 photographs. Nothing really iconic or organized in any fashion.
Rosetta Stone this is not. Modern art, yes.
I did want to add that I do like Paglen's other projects on Black Ops.
But I found the choice of photos to be a joke--literally. In the intro there is talk that it is ludicrous to think that any "other" coming across our rockets would have the same mathematics and be able to interpret our images and maps. The author mentions one sort of puzzling drawing in the caves of Lascaux. And so I assume based on this he and others gathered together a most random set of 100 photographs. Nothing really iconic or organized in any fashion.
Rosetta Stone this is not. Modern art, yes.
I did want to add that I do like Paglen's other projects on Black Ops.