The Visionary Imagination

(thanks to idfueland the nameless bloke who originally posted the image on Flikr)

Designers and artists often live in two worlds at once: the imaginary and the real world. Sometimes it is difficult for us to envision what the artist is showing us and other times it is simply magical. In good visionary projects we instantly get it and, for a moment, peer into another world. The object depicted above was created by French theater/puppeteer troupe Royal De Luxeto to celebrate the 100th anniversity of Jules Verne's death. This was one of a number of projects in Nantes, Verne's hometown.

With the ability to translate and share the imaginary comes a lot of responsibility. Ironically, Verne's last book Paris in the 20th Century has pretty much come to be. Maybe if he'd been responsible enough NOT TO DIE and had finished the sodding book and published it we wouldn't be in this mess!

(Yikes! Sorry for that outburst. I am going back to my tut heads...)