Fly Me to the Moon

"If This Is What Lunar Colonization Looks Like, We're Ready For The Future Now"        

By: Katherine Brooks

Source: The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/15/project-astoria_n_5673247.html

The article starts off by having the reader imagine a colony of humans building some sort of paradise on the moon. Then the article has the reader visualize, that fifteen years have passed since the colonizers had began on their  endeavor to build a paradise. The children who populated the society on the moon (nicknamed "Project Astoria"), set out for adventure. These young explorers, on their journey of exploration, discovered despicable and atrocious animals and stunning crystal plant life. This is all a fictitious, visually rich, and an alluring eleven image photo series coming from the minds of Los Angeles-based artists, Todd Baxter and his wife, Aubrey Videtto. They have "brought a utopian-dystopian dreamscape to life in their "Project Astoria: Test 01" series. They've essentially created a universe out of thin air -- Todd digitally painted the strange scenes from various photographs, involving tapirs, modular homes and Wes Anderson-esque uniforms, and Aubrey later crafted the "guide" to their world" (Brooks, 1). Todd drew inspiration from the first English colony, Roanoke which resulted in a mysterious disappearance, hence given the name "The Lost Colony." Todd and Aubrey added more to these images with an obscure species called "ubi." They are harmless, but can also be dangerous. "I remember being five or six years old, at the National Mall museums with my family... in the Air and Space Museum, walking through a replica of Skylab, the first US space station, and I knew my dad had worked on it as an engineer for the Space Program. As I was walking through the exhibit, I saw these manikin astronauts in their uniforms inside of the space station doing different things. One of the guys was in a kitchenette area, just sitting there eating food. I remember observing this frozen moment of people living in space, the interior of a kitchen, food, and it really sinking in –- this is a real thing. People can live in space! To my kid brain, this was pure wonderment, pure magic" (Baxter, 1). This experience was yet another implement which helped Todd and his wife create this majestic photo series.

            This is an important article as it has the audience imagine and be curious. Imagination will carry the viewer into this dystopian era that does not actually yet exist and curiosity will lead them down new paths.  Whilst viewing these series of images, there are many questions, that remain a mystery to the viewer. This mystery gives the viewer the ability to imagine and wonder. This article gives the audience a glimpse of what that age of discovery and leisure activity might look and feel like in the not-so-distant future .