We Kill Everything - Slide show

[Robert Roaldi]

We kill everything slide show.

[Ray]

Not sure what the message is here. It appears to be an expression of the banality of urban development, but even in the suburbs wildlife can still flourish, at least in Australia.

[Rob C]

The mall series was especially depressing on many levels. So much money, so many dreams... reminded me of mafia construction standards, too. So much money, so many...

Rob

[Peter McLennan]

Depressing indeed. An excellent series of essays.

I wonder what's been learned from these mistakes.

[Rand47]

Depressing indeed. An excellent series of essays.

I wonder what's been learned from these mistakes.

I think it depends on one's worldview.  From a materialist worldview perspective there's nothing depressing at all.  Things take the direction they take.  There's nothing more to be said.

From other worldview perspectives where there exists a sense that we can legitimately look at "is" and enivion an "ought," then this is depressing, indeed, and these photos help us ask important questions.

Rand

[N80]

I think it depends on one's worldview.  From a materialist worldview perspective there's nothing depressing at all.  Things take the direction they take.  There's nothing more to be said.

From other worldview perspectives where there exists a sense that we can legitimately look at "is" and enivion an "ought," then this is depressing, indeed, and these photos help us ask important questions.

Rand

You are exactly right. Without some imperative "ought" then we are just animals, just like all other animals, doing what we do. If that is the case, the only "imperative" that we can come up with is "I don't like it" or "Continuing on this course is going to hurt me, or us." But if someone else says "So what?" their viewpoint is just as valid.

And even if we contrive an imperative we are still confronted with the question of what "should" our environment look like? Should it look like it does now but with no further changes? Should it look like it did in 1720? Should it look like it did 2000 years ago? And the bigger question is: Who gets to say? And why?

[N80]

I did not get the first series of slides. Nice photography but I did not pick up on a cohesive theme other than just a general gripe with the modern world. I get that.

I loved the series on the mall. Nice photography. I loved the once 'modern' but now 'retro modern' look of that mall. It looks like a place I'd like to go as it is. But I'd love to see it restored to its original glory. But, I don't like going to malls or strip mall shopping centers in general. I hate how we build something new, abandon it to decay and eyesore and then build the exact same thing somewhere else in a different format. It is a testament to the power of 'new' in the modern culture, which is a testament to the success or marketing and materialism: we are never satisfied with what we have. If we were, the economy would crumble. But! If that mall was restored I'd go to it just to see it. And I hate shopping. Nice series of photos on the mall.

[Robert Roaldi]

When I first saw the site, it made me wonder if he had watched this old Ted talk "dissecting suburbia", a link that I have posted before in another thread. The phrases "immersive ugliness" and "places no one cares about" from the talk come to my mind often.

What kind of environments we want or don't want vary from person to person and from time to time, but when you build enough structures and places that have no meaning to anyone and that no one cares about, do you eventually end up with a culture no one cares about?

[pearlstreet]

What kind of environments we want or don't want vary from person to person and from time to time, but when you build enough structures and places that have no meaning to anyone and that no one cares about, do you eventually end up with a culture no one cares about?

That's very thoughtful, Robert. Thanks for posting this.

[N80]

What kind of environments we want or don't want vary from person to person and from time to time, but when you build enough structures and places that have no meaning to anyone and that no one cares about, do you eventually end up with a culture no one cares about?

Yes.

[Rob C]

When I first saw the site, it made me wonder if he had watched this old Ted talk "dissecting suburbia", a link that I have posted before in another thread. The phrases "immersive ugliness" and "places no one cares about" from the talk come to my mind often.

What kind of environments we want or don't want vary from person to person and from time to time, but when you build enough structures and places that have no meaning to anyone and that no one cares about, do you eventually end up with a culture no one cares about?

Yes, it's happend in a lot of UK cities where horrid brutalist structures have arisen in the guise of social housing and modern city centres, which turn into vandal paradise, eventual decay and final demolition. Much of it involves high stuctures that are supposed to save space, house lots of people, yet end up isolating many within the hive. If there's a message, perhaps it is that when the human animal is put into an ugly pen, it turns ugly in response.

Throw in crime, drugs, racial tension etc. and it must be living hell having to call it home.

Rob

[Robert Roaldi]

Yes, it's happend in a lot of UK cities where horrid brutalist structures have arisen in the guise of social housing and modern city centres, which turn into vandal paradise, eventual decay and final demolition. Much of it involves high stuctures that are supposed to save space, house lots of people, yet end up isolating many within the hive. If there's a message, perhaps it is that when the human animal is put into an ugly pen, it turns ugly in response.

Throw in crime, drugs, racial tension etc. and it must be living hell having to call it home.

Rob

I cannot imagine.

[Ray]

I cannot imagine.

Me neither. I live in paradise, surrounded by kangaroos (or wallabies to be more precise). 

[Rob C]

Me neither. I live in paradise, surrounded by kangaroos (or wallabies to be more precise). 

Is a wallaby a wannabe kangaroo?

Only kiddin' - no offence intended!

Rob

[Ray]

Is a wallaby a wannabe kangaroo?

Only kiddin' - no offence intended!

Rob

I've never asked them. I'm not sure that a wallaby knows it's a wallaby. Even I'm not sure sometimes if I'm looking at a large wallaby or small kangaroo. 

[N80]

Me neither. I live in paradise, surrounded by kangaroos (or wallabies to be more precise). 

I live in a small city on an old shady street, near a small university in a house my grandfather built in 1930. Its nice. But, a stone throw away and you get the ugly abandoned strip malls,etc. Two stone throws away and you get the ugly new, soon to be abandoned, strip malls. People flock to them like moth to flame.

I am fortunate to have a place in the country about 45 minutes away. 250 acres. 3 neighbors. All friends or family. Each close to a mile away. I am going there now.

[Rob C]

I live in a small city on an old shady street, near a small university in a house my grandfather built in 1930. Its nice. But, a stone throw away and you get the ugly abandoned strip malls,etc. Two stone throws away and you get the ugly new, soon to be abandoned, strip malls. People flock to them like moth to flame.

I am fortunate to have a place in the country about 45 minutes away. 250 acres. 3 neighbors. All friends or family. Each close to a mile away. I am going there now.

It's bad planning: were the new malls to be built on the site of the dead malls, then everbody would win.

Here we have another version: bars that fail because of the two basic problems they share with photographers, in that there are too many of them for the available business and live in the wrong location. New people take up leases when the old business fails, invest in redecoration thinking that's the solution, and then end up, a year or two later, trying to flog off the lease to the next mug.

One of my two usual eateries closed earlier this year, and the property had remained shut ever since with lots of fresh building work going on. Today, wandering past, I noticed it had just opened as a bar, so I dropped in, had a coffee and asked them if they were going to serve menu del dia lunches too, like the previous tennant did. The guy said not, but that from next week they'd be offering a single course of the day. I must try that. If it's nice, generous eneough, that will be as satisfying as a longer but thinner offering. The coffee was cheaper than it was in the past, as good and served in a larger cup, and very reasonably priced (€ 1.20, where the norm is higher, up to about € 1.80, the closer to the sea you get). Bodes well.

;-)

Rob

[Ray]

I live in a small city on an old shady street, near a small university in a house my grandfather built in 1930. Its nice. But, a stone throw away and you get the ugly abandoned strip malls,etc. Two stone throws away and you get the ugly new, soon to be abandoned, strip malls. People flock to them like moth to flame.

I am fortunate to have a place in the country about 45 minutes away. 250 acres. 3 neighbors. All friends or family. Each close to a mile away. I am going there now.

Hope you keep the grass nice and tidy. Do you have a big ride-on lawn mower? 250 acres requires a lot of mowing. 

[N80]

Yep.

[BradSmith]

Obviously, Mr. We Kill Everything is a very deep thinker.  A true ARTEEEEST!