Mechanical Air
Conceived, Text, Visual Composition & Imagery Michael Mayhew
Partners / Funding / Venues
A Hyper~Graphic Score Music Art Performance ~ M A P Conceived, Text & Imagery Michael Mayhew Michael Mayhew & Gavin Osborn went in search for a sense of awe knowing our lives have been consumed by mechanical air: an automated industrial sound track, the white noise of technology. |
Air conditioning, escalators, computer fans, cars, jets ripping blue skies with trails of white.
'Humanity must rise above the earth, to the top of the atmosphere and beyond. For only then will we understand the world in which we live.'
(Socrates)
Mechanical Air came about because of a concern we share about what we are doing to the planet and so to ourselves.
This starting point for Mechanical Air was simple, the singular moment of photographing the earth from space whilst Apollo 8 went to explore the moon in 1968 for the later moon landing in 1969 seemed to open up a moment where we were enabled to see ourselves and our location afresh. This moment came with a singular image that seemingly captivated and galvanized political and social consciousness. We had seen ourselves in real time and had a record of it.
We were fragile, beautiful, and isolated within a “vastness of space”.
The moment was awe-inspiring: we had left the surface of the planet, gone beyond the atmosphere, and altered our perception of our existence.
Mechanical Air aims to do just that – to understand the world we live in and our position as a species on a planet that is suffering directly from the human species’ impact upon it.
This starting point for Mechanical Air was simple, the singular moment of photographing the earth from space whilst Apollo 8 went to explore the moon in 1968 for the later moon landing in 1969 seemed to open up a moment where we were enabled to see ourselves and our location afresh. This moment came with a singular image that seemingly captivated and galvanized political and social consciousness. We had seen ourselves in real time and had a record of it.
We were fragile, beautiful, and isolated within a “vastness of space”.
The moment was awe-inspiring: we had left the surface of the planet, gone beyond the atmosphere, and altered our perception of our existence.
Mechanical Air aims to do just that – to understand the world we live in and our position as a species on a planet that is suffering directly from the human species’ impact upon it.
Stage One
Beginning Sketches for Mechanical Air
Beginning Sketches for Mechanical Air
Phase Two / of many . . . .
Head toward Stage Two