Close Reading
Bioshelter Toilet
With the conviction that the world’s ecosystems were under siege, fisheries biologists John Todd and William McLarney, with writer Nancy...
Arata Isozaki, Re-Ruined Hiroshima, Photomontage, 1968
Repeated throughout his career and intoned almost like a dirge, the potent phrase “The city of the future lies in...
Flipper, Cousteau, and Homo aquaticus
The broadcast of Flipper and Jacques Cousteau’s documentaries introduced audiences to a seemingly alien world. But these popular shows sought...
The Population Bomb in the Rearview Mirror
“The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will...
The Last Frontier Left to Conquer:
Brief Reflections on Silent Running (1972)
Lowell, in his arguments with fellow crew members, explains that, on Earth, “there are no more frontiers left to conquer,” disclosing the colonialist mindsets of governance on Earth and their extension into space. With human action no longer confined to a finite Earth, expansionist ambitions find an outlet through the technical ingenuity of the Valley Forge’s sealed domes, stewarded by Lowell and his spiritual ethic.