The Study of Interstellar Insects by Chipka
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Description
There are no humans on Orago: none that we would conceptually recognize outside of easily-misinterpreted physical similarities to Homo Sapeins. Their minds and the more subtle elements of their biology are completely alien to us.
There are wasps on Orago. There are beetles. There are plants that resemble creeping vines of ivy. Indeed, wasps, beetles, and ivy are the only living remnants of a baseline-human presence on that world.
Cities stand empty of recognizable inhabitants.
Machines, long fallen into disrepair, fall more deeply into subtle and obscure corruption. Nature—albeit alien—reclaims what baseline man has left behind.
The wasps, however...ah...the wasps. How strange they are! Though they bear little resemblance to their Earth-born ancestors, they share a genetic legacy. Imported from Earth to Orago, they were intended to act as beneficial pollinators for the flowering plants that accompanied the first settlers to that world. Where humans have failed: fallen to plague and radical/catastrophic mutation, the wasps have survived. As have various beetles, including the most tenacious of interlopers: the German cockroach.
It is the wasps that draw my attention, however, for the wasps have inherited a world of both tragedy and mystery.
Their hives support millions at a time...
They darken the skies of their world.
It would seem—as well—that a form of intelligence has blossomed in their breed. This intelligence—recognized long, long ago, by wo/men known as “wasp doctors” began subtly enough, and possibly as a component of the very slate-wiping plague that erased baseline-humanity from the face of the planet.
The wasps 'speak' to one another through two primary methods. As with the honeybees of Earth, circular dances convey rudimentary data, and the wasps of Orago. As they are the interstellar descendants of honeybees, they have retained this evolutionary trick. Life on an alien planet has shaped them further, however, and in ways similar to their formicidae cousins of Earth (ants) they also communicate through a complex form of chemical exchange.
Contemporary theory, based on pathology reports, supports the premise that the fall of humanity on Orago is the direct result of wasps attempting to communicate with their planetary neighbors.
And now, faced with such knowledge, I am haunted by a single question:
What were the ancestors of today's Orago wasps attempting to say to the men and women who had once shared their planet?
—From the unpublished journals of Pavl Hlavček.
***
This collage is the precursor to a story that is very likely to appear here in the not-so-distant future. It shares many elements in common with the "Agara" works already present in this gallery, but that's just a coincidence. All of the non-text work done here was accomplished with photoshop. The ivy and firebugs are the only photographic elements of this piece they're from my own photographic stock...everything else is photoshop brush and filter work.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and hopefully you've enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed making it....
Comments (19)
Geoaskier
Lovely composition and Love the clip for the journal...you my think I'm out there but I have often wondering what an insect could say if it could....guess because I had a rather extensive insect colletion when I was young...People would call from all over town telling me "quick get over here there is a bug you might want"....HAHA gotta love a small town.
jeroni
Wonderful and very creative work
beachzz
Wow, Geo and I have similar thoughts about bugs. I used to NEVER step on anything, cuz all I could think of was that if I was big enough to step on a bug, there was probably something big enough to step on ME!! I love this image; it's full of color, clear as a bell and just plain beautiful!!
MagikUnicorn
STUNNING
Lunastar
OH wonderful composition, great storyline
MrsRatbag
Another thought-provoking presentation from you; now I'm going to be wondering what the bees and wasps are trying to tell me as I shoo them away! Very professional-appearing journal page, you do excellent work... :)
auntietk
Have I told you lately that I think you're brilliant and amazing and talented and creative? Did I mention amazing? I can't wait for the story ...
anahata.c
ditto tara (great comment) and you got other great comments too... another tantalizing piece from you, putting us on the edge of our seats, wondering what you'll reveal next. Though if you don't reveal it all, it's ok because these 'snapshots' leave us to fill-in with our own imagination. That's one of the features of your writing, I'm seeing, how you paint a picture but leave mysteries intact so your reader can create whole worlds from them. I'm very curious about these modes of communication in the wasps, especially the chemical exchange, and how it relates to the fall of humans way back where & when. And of course we find, at end, that we've been reading the journal of an observer. (A very knowledgeable observer.) The visual is very knowing, the way you mix art and data-presentation, the way a fine scientific presentation might; and for intimations of how these creatures relate to an unknown whole; and your smaller visual with the Renaissance-like set of overlapping elipses. Also, it looks like you used Greek, but it could be (could be) mixed with something else; and it even looks like you have some English in there...you emulate real languages really well, Chip. Creative work all around...One of these days I'll get to your older works. They're still calling me, I just haven't made the time yet, but I will...
ledwolorz
Fantastic composition and super work.
Prematos
Great image.... I´m still thinking about the wasps... ;)
claude19
SUP...SUPER...ART...ARTWORK...EXCEPTIONAL series !!!
waldodessa
This is neat and beautiful!
texboy
Woo! Good story and picture, Chip! Fine sci-fi......
romanceworks
I've always run the other way from wasps ... should I listen? Intriguing and very creative writing and superb image. CC
Janiss
Oh Chip such interesting and fabulous collage!
KatesFriend
It will be interesting to learn how it was that humans vanished from this world and was it such a coincidence that this extinction seems to have happened at the same time as the wasp's emergence. I get the impression that the insects were just as astonished of events as the soon to be lost humans. You create some very imaginative worlds.
three_grrr
I love how you paint your stories with words and images. I am hooked, LOL, and will have to spend some time going through your gallery learning about Agara and other magical things.
nikolais
the collage is a pwoer addition to this wonderful story, Chip!
Cgaynor
Beautiful work.