ONTOLOGY

"The viewer's eye is drawn to the sharp edges of the image, reinforcing the idea of the harshness of the environment that generated it, emphasising the nature of the character required to be successful and thrive in it. Implicitly warning the onlooker what the rewards are for winning and the costs involved in losing out.

The discolouration on the impact zones, where the incoming fire from the weapons used in the engagement has created its own mesmerising tableau, belies the vulgar use of brute force required to create it. The heat stress of the impacts mimicking the wild, gorgeous nature of space as it is displayed in the various systems capsuleers jump through as they go about their normal routine. It conveys an aura of banality to the brutal scene, an indication of how strongly the pod pilot is inoculated against the shocking levels of violence that is part and parcel of the realities of being a capsuleer in New Eden. Capsuleers are so used to the intimate directness of the forces they unleash upon each other that, for them, this is not a crime scene, a display of haunting foreboding of things to come, they merely see a salvaging opportunity.

Imagine the mindset required to look through this field of misery, typically from the destruction of a single space ship, very often the product of fierce and protracted battles involving hundreds to thousands of ships that were thrown into the meat grinder to further the interests of some distant warlord. The Mittani's minions, as a for instance, echoing the ambitions of their secretive master. The result is a scene of epic destruction, worthy of the nod of approval of the driving forces behind New Eden's finely-tuned machinery of war.

Even in the death and destruction that is so casually visited on the ships and the crews that populate them, capsuleers will look for new opportunities to further their interests and they are so accustomed to that, they will even pluck the dead bodies of their fellow capsuleers from the debris field. It serves them as bragging rights, as a souvenir, as a business opportunity as some are known to sell the corpses to the Drifters who make new fighters out of them to fill their legions.

If New Eden is anything, it is a living, and dying, embodiment of the idea of creative destruction. The piece encompasses the bewildering array of opportunity available to capsuleers, and very few other souls among the boiling throngs of bodies in their trillions. It calls out the level of commitment required to make it that far and serves as a warning at the same time that failure comes at a high cost. Many are called to try their luck, few are able to stand the withering storm unleashed upon them, far fewer still are ready and prepared to pay the price of defeat. New Eden is an inhospitable place where only those callous souls willing to sacrifice anything and everything, will eventually rise to dominance.

The piece on display is intended to be a message on several levels. The capsuleer who commissioned it had this to say about what the work is made from, how it was made and why it was made:

"This piece is a reinforced armour plate from a titan I had a team hunt down and destroy. The titan belonged to a rival alliance. I wanted the armour to indicate there was nothing that can stop me from achieving my goals. The best armour from the best ship, flown by the best pilot, in the best fleet, was not enough protection to defend against my hunger for reaching my destiny. I will stop at nothing to get to where I'm going. I do not care how many crew perished, I do not care how much ISK was destroyed, I did not care for the contents of the ship or its salvaging. I merely wanted the armour plate and the pilot's body (for use in a different work of art, editor) to drive home the message that I am here, now and for eternity, to be a force to be reckoned with. That is why this piece is called The Point, because that is what I was making. That is why it is on display here: to show this and future generations what I will do to reach my goal."

This original and unabridged message from the capsuleer 'commissioning' this work of art, at whatever cost to all other parties involved (273,400 hands lost, one titan-class vessel, 14 super capital ships, 35 capital ships, 7 dreadnoughts, 55 battleships, 240 odd other sub capital ships ranging from frigates to strategic cruisers, at the latest counting) is an indication of the absurd lengths capsuleers will go to in order to achieve their goals. In that respect The Point is made succinctly in that when capsuleers are asked "What is the 'raison d'être' behind the capsuleer life in New Eden, this kind of example (though seldom as dramatic as this) is what they will indicate as their driving motivation for doing the things they do."

(Vital statistics: The Point, part of a 1600mm reinforced steel armour plate stressed, warped, roughly 15 by 10 meters, approximately 2000 tons. Estimated at 3.74 billion ISK at auction)”

This post was first published on the ‘Typed’ blog service on 24 November 2015, but that service was discontinued for lack of a viable customer base. I gladly paid for the service, but there weren’t enough people like me to keep it going.