“Bread crumbs”(perhaps how you got here)

(Originally posted Saturday, August 2, 2008)

I have not even the slightest clue as to this picture’s title and author. (If someone can enlighten me, send me an e -mail using the link at the bottom left of this Web page. In particular, if I’m using a copyrighted picture without permission, I’ll gladly take whatever steps are necessary.) I also have no idea how this came to be in my collection of Fantasy and Science Fiction art, though it’s not inappropriate. I don’t seem to have anything else like it.

This appears to be a picture done in a version of some contemporary graphics software about five to ten years ago. I presume that it is intended to depict an idealized future city. Not the slightest clue about what that stuff in the upper right corner is. The greenery is not very well textured, which is one of the chief reasons I think this work is recent.

Stylistically, it could possibly be the work of some art moderne artist as long ago as perhaps the 1920’s, and it would not have been entirely out of place in the 1930’s. Notice things like the smooth surfaces, the great size of the structures, and the windows that look somewhat like the portholes of spaceships. It is not easy to decide what the large building in the foreground might be. The vent stacks (? or whatever) on the left and right ends of the lower, rectangular part of the building make one think of a factory, but the immense dome is difficult to imagine as anything other than a place for spectators - such as an indoor stadium.

The structure is not entirely dissimilar to Albert Speer’s design for a colossal Great Hall, shown here in a photograph of the model (I think it’s a photo of the model, and not some other kind of representation, but it does fine to show my point. See Frederic Spotts, Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics, 2004, especially chapter 19; there is a rather nice but unattributed discussion of Fascist architecture at Black Sun, but the page does not seem to be linked in the site’s home page.) Speer’s idea was for an immense dome (you can get an idea of the size from the fact that the model shows the Brandenburg Gate at the lower right; it would have been interesting to see how they built this in the 1930’s, even if the resources to do the job had existed).

Speer - Capitol building

It is easy to sneer at megalomaniac designs like these; they can quickly become frightening - just look at the architecture that plays such an important part in the film Brazil. But in fact humans have long built immense structures at least partly motivated by a lust for immensity. One can see the Egyptian pyramids, or such famous (but no longer existing) ancient structures as the Colossus of Rhodes, or the Great Wall of China, or even St. Peter’s in Rome as being unnecessarily large except for the desire of the architect to build something impressive in large part because of its sheer size.

And, for the sake of those interested in modern times, think about all our wonderful new sports stadiums or the assorted extremely (and unnecessarily) tall buildings being built all over the world (e.g., Abu Dhabi, etc.). Most of these structures have no oppressive agenda.

Hmm. Or is that really a true statement? Does not the vast expenditure of resources needed to build something like the new version of the World Trade Towers or the various Olympic structures built for Beijing inevitably take away from what might have been spent to alleviate poverty or to educate children? Well, that’s the old plaint of the liberals, isn’t it? And, after all, what kind of stupid society would place education, health, public safety, or good housing ahead of grandeur and the images of invincible might?

 All text on this page is the work of J W Durham and is licensed only under terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Other licensing terms may be available. E-mail me