Flight and Ocean Views

Phase III by Nosaj Thing.

 

 

 

 

“Once you have tasted flight,

 

 

you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward,

 

 

for there you have been,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and there you will always long to return.”
Leonardo Da Vinci

 

 

 

 

 

 

”The rapid growth of aviation during the interwar period was mercurial, dramatically reshaping perception of the world and of space. There were daring fights of aviators challenging the breath of oceans and deserts, the heights of Everest, the length of Africa, the uncharted terrain of the North and South Poles.

 

 

The polar opposite to the microscope, which visually explored the realm of the infinitely small, the aerial view revealed space so vast that its comprehension could not be absorbed in a single glance.

 

 

It revealed the constant struggle man had made against nature until he had finally subdued the space of the world and turned it into a gigantic geometric representation.

 

 

Le Corbusier claimed the aerial view enabled
man to see ‘that which hitherto was only seen by the spirit…the eye of a bird transplanted into the head of a man.’

 

 

The aerial view appeared to make national boundaries obsolete:

The sun became a dictator and the meander of rivers a law…

 

 

Did the aviatorʼs humility in front of natureʼs forces, and the awareness of the cultural diversity of the world, hold out the ideal of a new peaceful community of nations?

 

 

It seemed to prove…that a revolution of perception and visual interpretation was at hand, that a new world order was imminent.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above is an image of the sunset at the North Pole. Thanks to cold-braving explorers of the past, the technologies of aviation and photography, this is a place, a breathtaking phenomenon that we can now see.

 

Featured: Matthew Cusick, Lea Melia, Michael Cina, hurricane photos by NASA; excerpts from Aviation and the Aerial View: Le Corbusier's Spatial Transformations in the 1930s and 1940s by Christine Boyer; http://penabranca.tumblr.com/