The unintentional dystopia of dams, sluices, and watergates

1. The Hoover Dam, Black Canyon (1934)



2. Xiluodu Dam, Yangtze River, Yunnan Province, China (2012) as photographed by Edward Burtynsky

These are my twelve favourite landscape painters from the 1950s to the present (not entirely in order of preference, but almost...)

1. Jean-Pierre Ugarte (born 1950)





2. Nigerian painter Abiodun Olaku (born 1958)

Beautiful relics from the future past: 1980s ex-Yugoslavian 'Modularni kiosk'





Sources: @/rememberingyugoslavia and @/leksikonyumitologije

Just a reminder that the Mazda MX-81 Aria has the most incredible steering wheel I've ever seen





Design by Bertone, of course

Vernacular architecture

1. Bedouin tents in Morocco Drawings by Spanish anthropologist, historian, linguist Julio Caro Baroja (1914–1995), from his book 'Estudios saharianos' (1955)

Interpretation of Calvino's Le città invisibili, published in Italy in 1972 and two year later in English as Invisible Cities

1. Gérard Trignac’s wondrous illustrations


2. Illustrations by David Fleck

Interpretation of Jorge Luis Borges's 'La biblioteca de Babel' (1941)

1. Andrew DeGraff
(from 'Plotted: A Literary Atlas', 2015)





2. Concept by brother-sister duo Kate Bernheimer (writer) and Andrew Bernheimer (architect). Illustration by Rice+Lipka Architects (2013). More here placesjournal.org/article/fairy-…

In a galaxy far, far away...

between J. M. W. Turner's sky studies and the overlapping planes of Analytical Cubism

The gorgeous space art of John Berkey (1932–2008)


I probably should have added that they are oil paintings—to be precise, a combination of oil and casein typical of Berkey's art

Hyperbolic dystopias in the paintings of Michael Kerbow

Regarding cinematic quality avant la lettre, 150 years ago, Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847–1915) began crafting woodblock compositions that profoundly influenced filmmakers of the 20th century

Augustus Knapp's illustrations for the science fiction novel 'Etidorhpa; or, The End of the Earth' (1895) by John Uri Lloyd



The title, 'Etidorhpa', is the backward spelling of the name 'Aphrodite'

Utsuro-bune, a mysterious ship-like object that appeared on the Japanese coast in 1803.

According to legend, a young & attractive woman came aboard this ship. Fisherman questioned her, but she was shy and did not speak Japanese—so they returned her and her vessel to the sea





'Utsuro' derives from the Japanese term meaning 'hollow' and combines with '-bune', which translates to 'boat.' So: the hollow-boat... Records of this incident can be found in four texts: Oushuku Zakki (1815), Toen Shōsetsu (1825), Hyōryū Kishū (1835), and Ume-no-chiri (1844).

The Sibley breaker, Pennsylvania, as captured in 1886, destroyed by fire on June 23, 1906 William A. colliery, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania

Alternative thread of cities seen from above

1. Ronda, Spain, as photographed by James Relf-Dyer



2. Grammichele, Catania, Sicily

The Ambiguous Aesthetics of Factories

1. Factories by Japanese photographer Tetsurou Kobayashi. A few more here instagram.com/p/Cs54QcNqUpu/… Photograph by Tetsurou Kobayashi

The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs

1. Brage oil field, located in the North Sea 120 km northwest of the city of Bergen 2. The Cormorant Alpha platform, located 161 kilometres north east of Lerwick, Shetland, Scotland

'Broken Landscape' (2017–2020) by Finnish artist Antti Laitinen. A few more here instagram.com/p/Cl3hY2Gqk-J/…

Concrete landscapes by French painter Jean-Pierre Ugarte (born 1950)

Dystopian solitude by German painter Stefan Hoenerloh—a few more here instagram.com/p/Cat9KZCKjQ5/… As if a powerful and evolved society disappeared at any moment, perhaps imploded by its inherent alienation, perhaps by over-density and greed... A collapse that has left architectural fossils

For an archaeology of our science-fictional imagination:

the ten-arm automatic bottle machine invented by Michael Joseph Owens in 1903.

Photo by Jacob Riis (ca. 1910) 2. Panama Canal Construction (1904-1914): View of the Locks under construction (1912)

Trees by Oxfordshire-based photographer Will Blakey Milner—a few more here
instagram.com/federico._.ita…