August 6, 2012 - Comments Off on Martian Magnificence
Martian Magnificence
Good news everyone! We've landed on Mars! Again! Think about that. We shot a sizable and expensive package through outer space and hit a target crater on a planet millions of miles away--multiple times. What could we accomplish if all the world's nations worked together, Sagan willing. Mars has been the seed of many interesting ideas over centuries. The need to explain its retrograde, or apparent backwards, motion in the night sky was one of the greatest observational pieces of evidence against geocentric models of our solar system. On the other, less scientific, hand the signs of dried out watery canals discovered in the 19th century lead to the idea of alien societies living on the once water-filled planet composed of resident martians, a word now synonymous with aliens at large. Thus the idea of life on Mars was launched the popular imagination and has since continued to be an unearthly inspiration.
Nothing epitomizes our space age fascination with the void more than the pulp era. Sergey Kolesov adds a sharp modern edge to the classic space opera style within his greater portfolio of stunning work. His work uses depth and perspective to great effect, creating epic scenes within each still image. This is strongly complimented by his skill in color and composition which leave the viewer feeling as if they've just gained a peak into a magical world unto its own.
Going to Mars would never be possible if it weren't for the corporations getting us there. Weyland megacorp, last seen undermining poor Sigourney Weaver, has an exquisite site that any fictional 23rd century company could be proud of. Clearly the marketing department for this film did not suffer for lack of budget, disappointing as the actual product was. Though this page is in essence a glorified index of their marketing strategy, the strong design stands out, crappy mini-games aside, as a prominent showcase of the capabilities of HTML5.
There are some obvious choices for Mars in video form but I rather prefer this short animation which depicts how I imagine NASA is currently corresponding with their newly landed probe. And though I can't post it here, I'd like to give an honorable mention to Insterstella 5555, the album length music video for Daft Punk's discovery. This animation in an incredible tale of alien abduction with a twist, all in anime form. Please seek it out especially if you're at all fond of Daft Punk (the low resolution versions online just don't hold up).
The Sketching Mechanism is a series of weekly posts, published on Mondays, containing the artistic musings of Mobile Designer/Developer Ben Chirlin from our Monday morning meeting at the NY Creative Bunker as well as his inspiring artistic finds of the week.