Jonathan Talbot: Imaging the Future

In 1870 Jules Verne published a fictional novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which told the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus.

Eighty-eight years later, in 1958, the real Nautilus made the first voyage under the polar ice pack, traveling more than 1800 miles in just six days and passing directly under the north pole.

But Verne was only traveling in the footsteps of another artist. Nearly four hundred years before Verne wrote his book, artist Leonardo DaVinci had sketched out plans for a submarine.

Around 1563 flemish artist Peter Breugel (he had dropped the “h” from his name in 1559) painted this imaginary picture of the Tower of Babel.

Four hundred years later artist/architect Frank Lloyd Wright turned Breugel’s imaginary concept upside down and made it real when, in 1959, the Guggenheim Museum opened in New York.

How far is the iPhone from the “wrist radio” that artist/cartoonist Chester Gould first drew for Dick Tracy in 1946 and which was updated to a “wrist TV” in 1964 and a “wrist computer” in 1986? Not far!

I know we are not all DaVincis, Breugels, Frank Lloyd Wrights, or Chester Goulds. but I do know that the paintings of Georgia O’Keefe have helped us to comprehend our intimate relationship with plants, that the works of Cindy Sherman have shown us how we each can realize our dreams, and that the etchings of Kathe Kollwitz have helped us to better understand the horrors of war, thus providing motivation for avoiding it.

Each one of us, every time we make a mark, assemble a collage, or carve an image, has the opportunity to model some portion of a better future for humankind. How we use that opportunity is, of course, up to us – but it helps to know that we are part of a larger process and it helps to understand how the creativity of those who have preceded us can guide and inspire our own artistic intentions.

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If you want to hear more from Jonathan Talbot, he will be presenting “Making Passion Your Business” on January 29th at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Click here for all the details.