the looming sky
As we wait out a tropical storm in Miami, I am thinking of a sky loom rather than the looming sky, inspired by this part of Anthony Doerr’s breathtaking, brief piece in this summer’s Granta:
Salmon, wildebeest, locusts. Storks, swifts, snow geese. What if the torrents of animals migrating past us every year left behind traces of their routes? What if Arctic terns sketched lines through the sky as they poured out of Antarctica and back; what if steelhead trout left thin, colourful filaments behind as they muscled up our rivers? The skies above our fields would become a loom; the continents would be bundled in thread.
Bracing and speculative, this is network theory.
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Posted Monday, August 18th, 2008, 12:20 pm | Filed in Art, Beauty, Design, Networks, Webs. Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 18th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
This reminds me of Winged Migration, one of my favorite movies…the “invisible” journeys of birds, the traces they leave. Similarly, wouldn’t it be interesting if we all left traces as we buzzed through the city - and THAT reminds me of the animation in another favorite (short) film, Ryan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qBgRAkea4M
August 18th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I hadn’t seen this short film, Amanda, thanks for sharing that.
Winged Migration is one of my favorites too–I remember sitting in the theater not realizing I was holding my breath in certain parts.
We are all sort of leaving digital traces with services like Brightkite and FireEagle, which is why I find them interesting. Maybe what’s missing is the deciphering of how we humans flock, the ways we choreograph who leads the V, and why…
August 19th, 2008 at 10:16 am
I love that idea :) Also, this reminded me of our discussion -
http://www.kerismith.com/blog/archives/000563.html
And this captures why for me, digital traces feel so insufficient (ironic - or tragic - comment, I realize, for a blogger):
http://www.kerismith.com/blog/archives/000564.html