Foto Friday 05 – Blade Runner 2009
Orange is the new Replicant
You are looking at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, viewed from Penha Hill in Macau, shot and processed in 2009, way before Villeneuve’s Orange. This is my Orange. There are many Oranges like it, but this one is mine. 🍊
I also did one with a Selenium filter. In reality, there was a ton of smog and pollution in the air that day. Nevermind that. Think of space and ships, deserts and dunes, bridges and oceans, bombastic sounds, a gigantic spaceship piercing through the orange fog, hanging there, looming like the Sword of Damocles. Picture it. Are you with me? Cool.
Sorry, there is no District 10 movie (yet). Do you like the mockup? Now forget all that and…
…imagine the earth being a tortoise, and we reach down and flip it on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs, trying to turn itself over, but it can’t, not without our help, and we’re not helping.
Are we failing the Voight-Kampff test? Are you dreaming of unicorns? It probably doesn’t mean anything…
While we’re on the subject of smog and pollution, I remember we went on a photo walk in January 2009 along La Coulée Verte around Paris, unaware there had been a NO21 warning earlier that day, advising everyone to stay indoors and keep the windows shut. We could see the reddish-brown haze hanging over the city, a pungent shroud of our own doing.
By a decision of 24 October 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union condemned France for having ‘systematically and persistently’ exceeded the annual limit value set for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) since 1 January 2010, thus violating Directive 2008/50/EC of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality. (source)
Oct 2022: French state sentenced to record €20 million fine for excessive air pollution. (lemonde.fr)
I used the app Plume Labs for a while but stopped since the AQI2 oscillates between Moderate and High – nothing I don’t already know. Plus, my Apple Watch keeps telling me about the Deteriorated Air Quality. The PM2.53 is constantly above the recommended limit. Out of curiosity, I checked at the time of my writing. Good thing I was indoors because… “Paris can’t breathe.”
Do you wonder how accurate sites on Air Pollution are, e.g. breezometer.com or plumelabs.com? Do you trust the data? I am not (yet) using this data to plan my day, decide where to live (we want to move), or check what I breathe. Are you? Ready to explore historical Air Quality Levels (AQI) at your location?
Paris, Oct 13 2023: Monthly average exposure to 17µg/m3 PM2.5 exceeds the recommended WHO yearly guideline (5µg/m3)
We’ll be fine. Everything will be fine. We’ll make sure of it. After all, we only have one planet, and, you know, no matter how dark it gets, there’s a light over at the Frankenstein place.
Feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post and share it with a friend so more people can discover it on Substack. 🙏
Suuuch a good photo (yet again). Seems to be a good Blade Runner theme doing the rounds today 😉
Love the District mock-up, too, my prawn.
Melbourne currently has decent air. Only 3 days in the last month that just clipped above WHO threshold.
While the smog is sad and frightening, I’m please to see HK and also Blade Runner making a feature this Friday. Pollution was one of the main reasons I left HK when I did, but I recently saw that Paris has similar amounts. (Depends on which kind I guess) I’m all for dystopia fictions opening an ethical ellipsis to help the world to act. 🙏🏽
Great post!