Technology Is Just Technology

Tokyo Genso is an artist that recreates scenes by painting over scenery from photographs. What I find interesting is that he recreates the scene so that it looks like ~50 years have passed.

||Top: Tokyo Genso's version of Shibuya|| Bottom: photo of Shibuya||

As you can see Tokyo Genso takes an image of the city Shibuya and paints a future version of it. Shibuya is a city in Tokyo, Japan: which is popular for it's technology, fashion and youth. Shibuya is know to be filled with young people. Shibuya is typically a lively city from day to night.

I find it interesting how Tokyo Genso uses the landmark (Shibuya 109 shopping center) to get the audience to recognize where it is but changes it in a way where it isn't Shibuya anymore. What he displays is quite the opposite of today's Shibuya. Tokyo Genso displays Shibuya as an empty district where no human life is seen and building seem to be broken and taken over by nature. This contrast is quite interesting because it depicts how humans work hard to create new technology but in the end it is nothing but scrap in the future. Society is what gives technology importance, otherwise nature will take it's dominance as seen in Tokyo Genso's work.