Thursday, March 13, 2014

Esse Quam Videri From Space!

While doing planning for a cache run in Raleigh NC I ran across this little gem in Google Earth. 

This lives at the North Carolina Art Museum, which is rapidly becoming one of my favourite places to hang out (it is the place that also contains the life sized Camera Obscura).

This is art that was not even possible 150 years ago... it was made specifically to be viewed from aerial photography.  Each letter is unique.  In short, its awesome and superb, and its mere existence makes me happy.

Sharp eyed folks may notice that the "I" in "this" has words written on it. They are the North Carolina state motto "To be, rather than to seem", which is translated from the latin "esse quam videri" and means "Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so.", or in other words "there are many folks who want to be known as good, but only a few who want to be good".  (note: at this stage I wish NC picked a cooler motto, but "live free or die" is already taken).

I headed over to the NC Art Museum and checked out the art from ground level.  This is the view from 0ft relative elevation:







As you can see, it is much more impressive from the air. If you know what you are looking for you can make out the letters, but if you were just a random passer-by, you'd never know you were walking through this aerial piece of artwork:

Cool, eh? Check out the art work for yourself by clicking on ye olde Google Maps link here.


Have you seen similar bits of aerial artwork in your travels?  Let me know about them in the comments!