The Artifact

The Anthropological Society of New America funded an expedition to the abandoned farms of the Skylands Reserve located within 100 miles of High Point Federal Park. We teamed up with archaeologists from the Archaic History department of Rutgers Federal University – Old Brunswick campus. When evacuating one farmstead we discovered an ancient fertility artifact that was used by farmers to appease the Goddess Mother Nature. It is an artifact made of old style plastic that has retained most of its original colors. It was used to bring rain, ward off pests, and bring harmony to the farmhold that possessed it. Some social historians seem to believe that this religious artifact was actually a plaything for the farm children to learn farming etiquette. They further insist that ancient print-style photographs once existed that revealed this artifact was indeed common to all farmhold children. There is no way of substantiating this since the Great Droughts of 3000 - 3050 CE was followed by the Great Forest Fires of 3050 - 3100 CE. There is ample evidence that this artifact was fashioned to appease the Goddess Mother Nature. For clues we examined how it was designed. It takes the form of a potato with anatomical features added to enhance its human resemblance. Although the potato is brown the other features were colored in garish colors some art historians believe was part of the farmhold folk culture. The anatomical parts are removable to allow the potato to be blessed by the priestess before the farmhold added the features to humanize the religious artifact before its burial in the fields to ensure bountiful harvests. We conclude that Mr. Potato Head was crafted by adults, for adults just to please the Goddess Mother Nature. The findings of this New Jersey Farmhold Expedition will be published in the quarterly The Garden Eden State in the Winter 4000 CE edition published by Rutgers Federal University – Old Brunswick campus.
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Sodius

           William Henry Fox Talbot is credited with the beginning of photography with his photogenic drawing process. It involved a cameraless photographic process where he treated paper with a solution of table salt. Next he coated this paper with a light-sensitive silver salt solution. Next he placed small objects like leaves onto this treated paper and exposed it to the sun. The print was exposed until the outline of the objects could be seen on the paper.

            What the world does not know is how William Talbot was able to invent this process seemingly out of thin air. After all, inventors must adhere to the tenets of science not the supernatural. Talbot was frustrated with his inability to find a way to reproduce images onto paper in the same vein as artists who reproduce images with paint on a canvas. One night he fell asleep in his studio. He seemingly woke up in a dark cave far from home. He gets up and starts groping his way through the cave toward a far light source. He comes upon a miner who appears to be chiseling away at the cave walls. As he approaches the miner, who quickly turns around, he is bewildered at the source of light.

            The miner confronts him, demanding to know who he was and why was he in his cave. Talbot said I’m a scientist, but you look like a demon. The demon said his name is Sodius and he was mining salt from the cave walls. The confused Talbot said that salt came from the seas and oceans. We use salt for our food he exclaimed. Sodius told him what use is salt for food for I don’t need to eat but only to see. Talbot protested how can you see with salt? You but need to know a secret of illumination insisted Sodius. Just look at my light source for its main fuel is salt.

            Talbot moves closer to the bowl of salt solution with the lit wick floating on top like a lily pad on a pond. How can you use salt to brighten any cave? Sodius winks and says I know a secret of nature that your science does not know. Talbot protests that his science is based on fact and his faith is in God not some demon. Sodius laughs and sarcastically says that when you put science and religion together you get only conflict. He tells Talbot that he taught the alchemists the secret of lunar caustic which is mixed with salt to produce a light bearing fuel.

            A confused Talbot muses aloud how can this be possible? The alchemists called silver luna because they thought silver was connected with the moon. Certainly science has discovered something similar. He suddenly exclaims that back in the 13^th century Albertus Magnus discovered nitric acid. Magnus found out that nitric acid dissolves silver and creates silver nitrate. Sodius insists that you mix salt with lunar caustic and add the wick to create light for this light was similar to that formed by the sun. Talbot protests that he does not believe in any superstition espoused by a demon. A smug Sodius smiles and tells Talbot that his formula succeeded where Talbot’s science and religion failed. Talbot became angry and proclaimed get behind me demon! An angry Sodius replied depart my sanctuary and return to your conflicted world!

            William Talbot wakes up and looks around fearfully. That demon Sodius was just a nightmare from hell. A relieved Talbot suddenly remembered Albertus Magnus and what the demon called lunar caustic. There must be a connection somehow. He rushes to get salt and water and mixes it together creating sodium chloride. He than takes silver and adds nitric acid to create silver nitrate. He now mixes the sodium chloride with the silver nitrate to create silver chloride. He paused and said aloud I need something better than a candle wick to test the light. He decides to use high quality writing paper. He first coats the paper with the sodium chloride and dries it. Next he coats the paper with silver chloride and dries it. Now how do I test this paper to see if I can create images on it? He decides to place leaves on the paper and put it outside in the sunlight. He watches the paper darken around the leaves while the leaves remained much brighter by comparison. Talbot exclaimed that the treated paper was sensitive to light! I finally figured it out using science and God! He shuddered when he heard demonic laughter echoing from inside a distant cave.

Art and architecture is always relevant

            It is important to spend time and money in discovering, preserving and displaying art from long gone civilizations. It can be a civilization from a culture not one’s own or even the distant past of your own civilization. Art and architecture was created to fill needs such as beauty, the worship of nature (or religion), and the display of cultural and economic splendor or simply because it fulfilled a personal (or societal) desire (or necessity). The appreciation or compassion that comes from creating art from today or yesterday is to be cherished.

            Art and architecture is always relevant regardless if it’s from the past, present, or future. Art as art serves a purpose just by being imagined, conceptualized and created. Something that springs from the internal self to the external world is a gift from God (or the gods). Art and technology are often like quarrelsome twins. One begets the other yet there is conflict when visions collide. We often talk of religion and science being in conflict yet there is this same tension between art and technology. The technology used in metal work, painting, pottery and all such aids in the creative Muse. Technology is in conflict with art when for example; at a construction site a back hoe is used to dig up a Native American burial ground with no intention of preserving the artifacts and the culture that created it.

            Art and architecture is always relevant from a historical, contemporary or future perspective. We needed our past when it was the present, we need our today, and we will always need our future when it becomes our present day. Art and architecture is often born of necessity and fills our desire for beauty. The physical and spiritual is manifested in our artifacts and how these artifacts are constructed and used reflects the quality of our civilization. Although art and technology are like quarrelsome twins we need both our children for our inner goddess Muse demands it of us. Our inner Muse is the goddess that helped spawn our various human civilizations.