Welcome to the second segment of Culture of the ‘Verse, your portal to all things beyond mere survival! With the Catastrophe in our collective pasts, we look to the future to expand humanity’s possibilities. Last time we looked at cloning, with all of its complications, so today we’ll be focusing on the pleasant topic of artistic endeavors!
Art is ever-present – whether in times of stress or prosperity, people will create art which reflects their values, needs and desires. Stations like Nouveau Limoges recognize this and choose to maintain publicly available museum exhibits, so that everyone’s lives may be enriched by these artistic features. Some exhibits even feature artifacts from before the Catastrophe! Because art means different things to different people, we decided to capture the soul of the Grande Galaxie Museum and Gallery in Nouveau Limoges, of the Gaule Protectorate, by asking people about their favorite exhibit!
Aveline LeLac, 136 cycles old
“Interpretive dance sounded ridiculous – my friends had to drag me to the show – but the first time I saw Thea Mai on stage, I was touched. Her performance, full of skill, grace and care, was clearly captivating… But it wasn’t until days later that I realized it was all a metaphor for our oppression by the Gaule, and the need for us to rise up. It was the first time I felt the strength of someone’s feelings resonate so strongly with mine. I’ve been to all of Thea Mai’s performances, ever since.”
Yaël Archambeau, 12 cycles old, and Vincent Archambeau, 181 cycles old
“I liked the pieces that you could move and stack on each other and change their color and make a whole station if you wanted to!”
“It was the Stack-a-Block event, last cycle. Yaël and their friends came here every day for a tenspan, and learned a lot about station structures and what they need to run properly. They would have kept coming, if my son had let them—”
“I loved Stack and Block! Papa should have let me finish! I made a place to get rations, a place to work, and a big open space to play with friends, and a museum like this one! And I made a biiiig house! It had seven rooms and a kitchen and two live-in rooms and eight places to go potty!”
“Yes, Yaël, it was a very lovely house.”
Pascal Cartier, 92 cycles old
“It sounds boring, but I like things which are really well crafted. Paintings made with real paint compounds, which show beautiful landscapes as we think they were on Old Earth. Hand-chiseled statues where every fold of cloth, every hair, is perfectly in place. I can stand in front of these and let my worries wash away… I know art has important meanings, but to me, it’s about how it makes me feel, and ‘traditional’ art makes me feel at peace with the universe.”
As you can imagine, with art and beauty being subjective, everyone has their favorite! The next time you have a chance, stop by the Museum and see what exhibit is on that cycle – we promise you’ll experience something novel!