As Above, So Below: The Monument to Human Enterprise
Team
Name: Lukas Weidner
Nationality: American
Institution / Company: Virginia Tech
Name: Michael Darby
Nationality: American
Institution / Company: Virginia Tech
– FINALIST of 2020 Monument Competition
A solemn omen and reminder of our deepest wisdom, the monument of our future must not be bound to the terrestrial plain as those that came before. Our affairs may change, but what persists is our ineffable desire to reach beyond ourselves; to dream impossible dreams and explore the unknown bounds of ourselves and universe.
Human-kind’s future as a voyaging species is threatened by the crisis of orbital debris which has begun to congest pathways to spaceflight. We propose an endeavour to apprehend and consolidate these artifacts of spaceflight and, in so doing, erect a monument the likes of which humankind has, until now, been incapable of constructing. An array of devices will distribute a disk of ice particles orbiting the earth’s equator, achieving the twofold objective of reorienting the orbit of existing debris to create clear pathways for space flight, as well as construct a monument to human prowess, ingenuity, and its sobering consequences. This project will grow only through relentless contribution over many generations. Visible to all around the world, this monument will be the culmination of human-kind’s enterprise, elevated to a place that until now has belonged only to dreams and gods.
#Artifact, #Collective, #Leviathan, #Omen, #Voyage
