Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Post-apocalypse Tokyo

Shibuya Center-gai 3 | tokyogenso | via Pink Tentacle

Shibuya Center-gai 2 | tokyogenso | via Pink Tentacle

Shibuya Center-gai 1 | tokyogenso | via Pink Tentacle

Pre-apocalyptic Shibuya Center-gai
via Weekly Teinou 蜂 Woman (Geisha Asobi)

We've seen London, New York and even Lisbon each given their respective post-apocalyptic makeovers. Now, the Japanese capital joins our burgeoning gallery of Things Falling Apart, thanks to images from 東京幻想 (Tokyo Fantasy) by tokyogenso, drawn to the attention of English speakers by Pink Tentacle.

I find the images above, of Shibuya Center-gai (a narrow street in the city's famous shopping district) somewhat more interesting when viewed in "backcasting" mode -- reeling us back in from the imaginary frontier of the humanless far-future, to the mundane present.

Related posts:
> Immaculate extinction
> It's a small world, after all
> The go-to guys for post apocalyptic chaos and destruction
> Posthuman New York

(Thanks Jake!)

2 comments:

枚傀柔石 said...

Are there any post apocalypse versions of Hawaii, or is that place still immune to such travesty?

;)

Stuart Candy said...

Thanks for stopping by, 枚傀柔石.

Good question.

The answer depends on what we mean by "apocalypse".

If you consider a serious viral outbreak apocalyptic, then yes.

If the collapse of the economy and ascent of a military dictatorship counts, yes again.

If hurricane devastation, followed by mass exodus from the islands and guerrilla warfare among those left behind meets the definition, that version exists too.

And if you consider as apocalyptic -- and some do -- the sudden arrival by uninvited outsiders, an entire people dispossessed of their ancestral lands, despoliation of pristine wilderness by rampant development, and the exploitation of sacred places and rituals for shallow commercial reasons, then the answer would again be yes: views of post apocalypse Hawaii are being taken in tourist snapshots on a daily basis.

But if you're asking about images of modern Hawaii minus the people, a flash-forward to show its cityscapes being reclaimed by nature (a specific analog to most of the other images in this genre), then no, I don't believe anyone's done that yet. Certainly, at the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, we keep all our futures bright and cheerful. ;)