Her Two Cents
The Creators Project blog generally overwhelms me with mind-bending creations illustrating the intersection of art, science, and technology. However, today brought a story about a short film by Neil Harvey titled, Robbie. The main character is a sentient robot, who provides the narration, but what makes the film unique is its use of public footage from NASA to tell the story. I’m a big fan of public domain and creative commons licensure, so I decided to spend eight minutes and check it out. And you should spend eight minutes to check it out too. Robbie is a love story. A love story about humans and the earth and all living things as told by a robotic creature with the ability to remember, and feel, and have faith – albeit with a virtual, Second Life-like sense of visual perception. Robbie inhabits a lineage somewhere between Moon and The Jetsons and the inclusion of footage of NASA astronauts in space gives the film a home-movie type feel. The viewer senses that Robbie is proudly showing off his friends and co-workers and we see their smiles, activities, and interactions. The ending, which I won’t give away, is certainly a heart-grabber and whether you see it as hopeful, saddening, or something in-between, surely resides within your own memories and perception. I selected this post from Ithaca to accompany the film because it echoed the emotions expressed by Robbie, but also because I imagined this being a message written to Robbie from a friend left behind. We never know when our heart will be touched or what will cause it. Perhaps only the starry night sky of the Universe holds the answer.
To My Man Of A Million Magical Moments
Missed Connections from Ithaca
You know what I miss most?
I miss how easy it was for me to love myself when I was with you.
The way being with you made me feel, about myself, about life, about love…
What a gift that was.
If I’d never met you, I wouldn’t know this feeling is something worth waiting for…
I wouldn’t know a heart could beat so fast, or a breathe be taken away so completely…
I wouldn’t know what a moment of Peace feels like,
Or a moment of knowing nothing but awe.
I wouldn’t know being alive, my entire life, was meant solely to bring me to that one moment of magic over and over again.
So much for not filling this new space with you & I…
Your absence from my life has filled it as fully as your presence would have,
And still, It’s been a long 9 months since I last touched the soul of love…
So please, Dear Universe,
Please send me something more exquisite than this Bliss I’ve known.
I can’t imagine anything that could feel more exquisite, so please, just surprise me.
9 months should be long enough to birth a new love, don’t you think?
Thank you.
I wish you Love, in all ways,
Robbie – A Short Film By Neil Harvey from Neil Harvey on Vimeo.
