Thoughts of Asimov (Among Other Things)

Out of all the photos in the MoCP, the ones that struck me the most were the "Selenography II" Series by Jenny Äkerlund.  According to the plaque, they were not photographs per-se, but painstaking re-creations of old astronomy textbook pictures of the moon done in graphite and made to look like photocopies of the pages.  Knowing this made them much more impressive, as I had initially though they were photos of the textbook pages.  The attention to detail alone was enough to impress me.  More than that, though, it reminded me of the works of Issac Asimov.  The kind of science fiction that's more about technology and discovery than characters or story.
This makes sense in the context of what the plaque says was Äkerlund's intention; to show how things that were once novel and fascinating are now just relics of the past.  Similarly, what the pieces show to me is how given the passage of time, things that were once educational or scientific can become fantastical.  They seem to evoke a sense of mystery that implies a deeper mythology than what is seen in front of you.  Like Egyptian Hieroglyphics, what was once just another means of recoding information has taken on a whole new level of mystique.  A sense of, again, mythology.  I look at them and it makes me feel like there's something more, something unknown to something that is very well known today, the moon.  Like perhaps there is life there, little green men scampering about the surface, or perhaps an underground civilization of seven foot-tall lizard-people with piercing red eyes, razor-sharp teeth and four-inch talons on their hands and feet, which are only used for when they are deprived of their high tech-weaponry.  An assortment of laser guns with varying degrees of power and 80-foot tall Theropod-shaped mechs that breathe fire and shoot plasma missiles from their--ahem.  Sorry, got a little carried away.  But that does give you an idea of just how much these pieces fire up my imagination.  And really, I'd say any photography that take me from old-timey pictures of the moon to giant robot dinosaurs is successful in my book.