Click image to view a 50s video excerpt from Ancient Mars II: the Apocalypse.

Lie down beside me
and we’ll gaze at the furthest sky,
where once our dreams were carried aloft
in the updraft, in the flames of our personal fire.

We’ll recall our promises and secrets,
kept and broken, reflections
in a tarnished mirror, bitter lessons
learned too late.

We tried to fly, to escape
our airless dance of solitude,
and yet you’re here with me,
once more.

Jakaíra, the goddess of the mists,
is waiting for our ending.
She knows all fantasies
are flammable, they burn
to smoke and ash.

The night will fall like fish,

the stars beyond the sky will shine,

ephemera are all we have,

so lie down beside me.

about

• the furthest sky
• I’m a great fan of Jakaíra, goddess of mists and fog in the mythology of Brazil’s Tupi-Guarani peoples.

artwork
A few people have asked me how I create my art … alright, more wood ducks than people. Two of them. But one quacked twice.

The short video excerpt from Ancient Mars II: the Apocalypse (click image to view) illustrates successive transformations with VEE, the visual evolution engine. (The figure was evolved separately.) VEE doesn’t use standard artificial intelligence techniques to mimic human art, it seeks the unknown. I hope it doesn’t escape onto the internet.

The background of the original image is a photograph taken by NASA’s Mars Rover, and particular full frames, with before/after sliders showing the VEE transformation, are here and here.