Weekend Diversion: Advertising vs. Art (Synopsis)

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery — air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, ‘This is what it is to be happy.’” -Sylvia Plath

The modern world can often make you feel like you'll never find anything good "playing by its rules" in it. This feeling is evoked, tremendously, in the songs of Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and in particular in this one,

The Southside of the World.

But artist Brian Kane is doing something to bring us back to nature, even in an urban setting.

Image credit: © 2015 Brian Kane, via http://briankane.net/healing-tool/. Image credit: © 2015 Brian Kane, via http://briankane.net/healing-tool/.

Through a form of art known as "unvertising," where an advertising space is used for a positive campaign that has no message at all, Brian is taking commuters in Massachusetts back to nature in a simple, expressive and interesting way.

Image credit: © 2015 Brian Kane, via http://briankane.net/healing-tool/. Image credit: © 2015 Brian Kane, via http://briankane.net/healing-tool/.

Go explore the whole project, Healing Tool, for our weekend diversion!

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Initially, I thought 'what a great idea - where we have managed to destroy natures (back/front)yard, just hang out some pics of how the area used to look before the (de/con)struction.
Then the thought of safety struck home. All these distractions along the highways & byways. Imagine, not knowing the signage was there, in the evening (night) there is an apparition of a phase of the moon before the driver - the moment of panic - WTF - simply because it should not be there.
Once the driver gets used to the sight, however, the brain tends to block such things; unless there is a constant change - a slide show, or something of that nature.
Don't get me wrong, progress has its place; I would rather see a tree, though, than a picture of one.

Showing people what it OUGHT to look like, though, PJ, lets people know what they're missing and that maybe they will then consider whether crass consumerism that removes the natural reasons for living is pointless.

A PS4 doesn't have the impact your first view of the Milky Way in really dark skies does.

Don't I know it ! I still remember that vista well. I was seven, standing in our country back yard, about 22 Km from Toronto (CA) , 60 years ago. The old man handed me a pair of 7 x 50 binocs - breathtaking, totally breathtaking. The next time I felt that was when I had finished my first telescope.
Try relating that to a younger generation just doesn't hit home any more. Everything for them has to be now, no matter what the cost. How sad .....

Hey, Tex, tried hugging a cellphone pole disguised as a tree (the pole, that is) lately ? Bloody cold, I would imagine. ;)