The Land of Giants is “A Poem for the Eyes”

The Land of Giants™ is a proposal designed by Choi+Shine Architects, LLC for Landsnet, Iceland. The idea, explains the firm, is to transform “mundane electrical pylons into statues on the Icelandic landscape.”

Making only minor alterations to well established steel-framed tower design, we have created a series of towers that are powerful, solemn and variable. These iconic pylon-figures will become monuments in the landscape. Seeing the pylon-figures will become an unforgettable experience, elevating the towers to something more than merely a functional design of necessity.

This is a beautiful idea if ever there was one.

Here we have power lines—huge high-voltage cables traversing the landscape and delivering electricity to run the machinery and equipment on which the civilized world depends. And rather than the cables being supported by mere metal pylons, they are supported by massive, stylized likenesses of the men and women who create and deliver the electricity. This symbolism is akin to that of Atlas supporting the Earth, but it’s more specific. Rather than supporting the Earth, which, in the abstract, is a virtue almost no one would deny the importance of—these Giants are supporting the delivery mechanism of the most vital yet controversial product of the day: energy, which is generated primarily by burning fossil fuels.

As a friend said, “They remind me of the giants who discovered and delivered electricity: Ampère, Coulomb, Edison, Faraday, Hertz, Joule, Siemens, Tesla, Volta, Westinghouse and so many others.” I would add John D. Rockefeller, George P. Mitchell, and all the other pioneers who have developed means of extracting fossil fuels from the earth and converting them into products with which to create electricity. Heroes all.

And the “Land of Giants” project gets more interesting: . . .

About Craig Biddle

Craig is editor in chief of The Objective Standard, director of education at Objective Standard Institute, and executive director of Prometheus Foundation. He is the author of several books, including Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It and Rational Egoism: The Morality for Human Flourishing. Visit his website at CraigBiddle.com.

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