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Dedicated to Sustainability and Carpe Diem

(Picture: DS, Carpe Diem)

Sustainability and Carpe Diem (1)

(9.6.2023) Perhaps one might encounter Latin teachers today, who are proponents of sustainability as well as they are teachers of Latin. It’s been a while that I went to school, and at the time I left school (in 1990/91) the Homo Wiseforesightiensis, as one may call the proponent of sustainability, did not yet exist. The concept of sustainability was about to be on the rise, but not quite yet on the rise then (this happened somewhat later, while I went to university); but the concept of Carpe diem was (due to a 1989 movie). A concept which might be seen as being opposed to the concept of sustainability. To ›seize the day‹ – not to think of tomorrow, of the future – might be seen as exactly the opposite of: thinking with eyes of tomorrow, with the aim, to secure the future of the earth for future generations. Hence we are discussing here, perhaps a world premiere, the iconography of Carpe diem versus the iconography of sustainability, and the Homo Wiseforesightiensis versus the Homo Carpe Diem.

1) The Sustainable Burdens of Latin

I don’t know whether the two girls I have represented in my picture (above) do know Latin. Perhaps they have heard about Carpe diem, or, let’s say, about Horace and all that; perhaps they have heard about Ovid and about the Ages of Man, and the story of decay from the Golden Age to the Iron Age, and beyond. But for the moment, they do not care. And this is, in my view, the essence of Carpe diem that is inherent to youth.
But Carpe diem is not that innocent anymore. If Carpe diem means: pick the flowers now, and don’t think, as long as you are young, about tomorrow, this is 1990/91-Carpe-diem. 2023-Carpe-diem means, pick the flowers, but better: do not pick the flowers, since these flowers might be endangered species. And Carpe diem can also mean: yes, carpe diem, but beware of becoming a brainless consumer, who does not think of the future. Yes, the two girls above have heard that tune, and for the moment, they do not care. They are just frolicking around, not thinking about the future. And this is what youth is, youth that probably does not need the advice of Carpe diem, because youth is frolicking around anyway. But not today. At least not all of youth. The Homo Wiseforesightiensis, not rarely, is young, and certainly does not recommend unrestricted Carpe diem, but rather: do take the science seriously! So it is a bit ambiguous to paint Carpe diem pictures that draw, perhaps, from an iconography of the Golden Age (because the Golden Age is also the equivalent of youth); living today might rather mean: to have an awareness that we are living in an Iron Age, and seek to reinvent the Golden Age of Sustainability (which might look like the utopias of Solarpunk or not). But we also have an awareness that this is not that easy, and this ambiguity is perhaps expressed best in the title of a 2020 painting by Jadé Fadojutimi, which goes: There exists a glorious world. Its name? The Land of Sustainable Burdens. Which is perhaps also the first painting with a reference to the discourse of sustainability in its title.

2) The Youth of Sustainability, the Sustainability of Youth

Carpe diem, I am realizing it now, is actually the tune of those remembering (or just imagining) careless days of youth, and make the mistake to think that youth does need the advice of Carpe diem. No, it is a slogan of Old White European men (perhaps teachers of Latin), trying to rejuvenate, by thinking through a concept that does not belong to them anymore. And those who ›own‹ it, do not need to be advised about it (the awareness might rather be disturbing). But carelessness, today, is something rather ambiguous, and therefore Carpe diem is yet frivolous. And a youth that is older now than it will be in, let’s say, 25 years, will realize it later. ›Realizing‹ not in a sense of ›becoming aware‹ (this youth does know that carelessness is frivolous), but in a sense of ›trying to recapture carelessness‹, and to live it.

(Picture: GearedBull)

3) Astraea – the Goddess of Sustainability?

But these dead poets still do offer much. Since at the end of the story about the Iron Age, we hear that the goddess of justice, Astraea is leaving planet earth. The story of decay has reached its final, but Astraea might come back, heralding a new era: the era of sustainability, which might look like the Golden Age again.

(Picture: DS, Astraea and Her Sisters)

And it’s the Old Masters, who might be seen as the actual contributors of an iconography of sustainability. Those Old Masters who have represented the various Ages of Man. And these masters still do offer much. Our era that has produced a hypermoral discourse of sustainability seems to know less about pictures (or does not seem to take them very seriously), since an actual contemporary iconography of sustainability, one that would have convinced Pieter Bruegel the Elder, does not exist. So don’t be too rigid with the Old European White Male. Beware only if he is recommending Carpe diem. Those who have it know it (without knowing). And those who lack it, fantasize about it. I might have to chose a different title for my picture. Perhaps (also inspired by a 1980s movie) ›Astraea and Her Sisters‹.

(Picture: John William Waterhouse)

The Art Museum of Sustainability


Monet on Sustainability

Velázquez on Sustainability

Van Gogh on Sustainability

Picasso and Sustainability

Hopper and Sustainability

Rubens on Sustainability

Caspar David Friedrich and Sustainability

Iconography of Sustainability


Iconography of Sustainability

Iconography of Sustainability 2

From Bruegel to Solarpunk (Iconography of Sustainability 3)

Concepts, Labels and Varia


Solarpunk

Renaturalization

Tipping Points

The Blue Hour in Ecotopia

Reforestation

Emergency Supply

Sustainability and Luxury

Eyes of Tomorrow

Bamboo

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