...
What follows are the amalgamations of thoughts and research,
of making and meaning,
of manifestations and metaphors,
of mankind and its mysteries.
The product of holding on too tightly,
while learning to let go.
With the intention of finding some greater truth,
it seems it may only be understood in the struggle,
only made real in the madness.
Welcome to one particular chaos.
One particular truth.
Proceed with caution,
but open eyes.
...
Human Ark defines what it means to be Human through a narrative of humanity facing ultimate oblivion.
Humanity has become an existential threat to its own existence. Due to global climate change, the Earth has a specified extinction day in which the entirety of humanity will have perished. The only way to preserve the human race is by going to space. Humanity must work together to create a vessel that will carry the last survivors of Earth, the last artifacts of the human condition.
What is gathered and included on this vessel as it travels into the next plane of human existence? What is the definition of our species and of all human culture? What does it mean to be human?
ABSTRACT SHOW
To try and begin comprehending humanity and its struggle for self-consciousness, I looked to create an abstract circumstance in which a machine would help to become the means to achieve this goal of understanding humanity.
This video portrays a future time in which a machine is used to create human identity utilizing machine technology and artificial intelligence. The images seen next are from the video which can be viewed at the link below.
VELLUM
An exploration into form as a meaning of humanity, as fabricated through the use of machine. A manifestation of the idea that a machine could start to create a humanoid object, injecting it with the embodiment of humanity in the process of pulling it into form. In doing this, ridding ourselves as humans of the idea that our existence in reality is so precious, above all other objects on earth, and we ourselves are objects that are a part of a larger system.
VELLUM // HUMANOID CHAIR
CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK, NY, USA
Central Park was chosen as the site for Human Ark because of it’s intersected location through access to international travel hubs. The site is also known world-wide for it’s pristine beauty in the center of a highly urbanized city. However, this land too will decay along with the planet, unaffected by American exceptionalism at the hands of climate change.
Research into Central Park as a site for Human Ark became an investigation into how this location can become the Hearth of intersecting and interconnected travel points and thereby an intersection point of global knowledge and meaning.
SITE STUDY // TRANSPORTATION TAPESTRY
FORMAL INVESTIGATION
Physical and digital models make manifest ideas of unity and intersection in a mixed-media derivation. Formal experiments used to express the idea of humanity engaging in the construction of its final resting place, a space defined by their final mark. The resulting objects embody a machine that begins to work for all of humanity, and becomes an emblem of humans’ capabilities to work together when a shared vision and goal could be carried into the future.
FORM STUDY // A NEW TREE OF LIFE
FOUND OBJECT // MECHANICAL MONUMENT
FINAL REPRESENTATION
Human Ark proves the necessity for global involvement in the project: the need to come together as a community to gather what is to be the remains of the human species. However, through the development of the societal structures that were designed for the vessel, further questions of humanity start to find answers through the processes and systems involved in the consecration of this monument.
VIEW on SITE // JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS RESERVOIR
INTERIOR VIEW // RECREATION BIOME RING
EXTERIOR VIEW // MECHANICAL CORE
INTERIOR VIEW // A.I. HEARTH
NFT // "DETACHED"
JUNE 22nd, 2050
But when June 21st arrived, there remained a glimmer of hope. A lingering thought in the back of the minds on board that the preparations for evacuation may have developed into something new entirely. A closed-system of people working towards a common goal. A harmonious system of satisfying needs, while leaving room for that which is yet to be understood. A system based upon the goal of protecting a piece of life, became a model for a functioning unity outside of the small terrestrial vessel.
When the time came for launch, only one question remained unanswered:
...
Do we still need to leave Earth?
- CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW FALL QUARTER RESEARCH BOOK -