Oh, Shiny Metal Beast – I love you so!
Posted in Life, Uncategorized by Jonathan on November 20th, 2009
I’ve had the visual elements for this lying in the post hopper for almost a year. It was going to be a post about how easily we anthropomorphize things, how we can feel pity for inanimate objects. Or, at least, how I can.
It was triggered by this rather perverse battle between a tiny robot and a big robot, or rather by how moved I was at the plight of this little manikin made of metal strips and cogs, continuing to fight the good fight while hopelessly outmatched. Click on the image for heart-breaking little-robot-on-big-robot action…
I felt similarly stricken at the loss of the Phoenix Rover, the space explorer probe, when it shut down last year with the approach of Martian winter; after five months of glorious data collection, it would be encased in carbon dioxide ice for a year – pretty much certain death. The demise of the Rover was all the more painful because I’d been following its blogs on Gizmodo – thank God I’d not become addicted to its Twitter feed! Click on the photo below to link to its farewell message.
Finally, to bring it all home, Spike Jonze’s fantastic Ikea ad:
CJdL Design says:
Spike Jonze is one of the many masters among the Masterful. His pathos heavy IKEA add had the opposite effect on me though, as it made me want to rescue/re-use my “Brave Little Appliances” rather than discard them.
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Jonathan Hayes says:
I completely agree! That new lamp is going to have to be pretty freaking excellent before I forgive it, that’s all’s I’m saying…
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:39 pm