The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs • Hacker News Board

Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs

#11

Post by NoZebra120vClip » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 10:55 AM UTC

redder23 wrote: post #4

I find only the very first pic somehow appealing. I do not really see any "beauty" there.

I think it was in the documentary Crumb where they explained how R. Crumb lovingly filled in random urban junk in the landscape, like TV antennas, power lines, traffic lights, and all sorts of clutter that many artists would elide from an attractive panorama. And yet Crumb found it somehow beautiful in this random jumbled-up morass of artificial trees. I found it admirable.

Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs

#12

Post by iamthemonster » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 11:11 AM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #7

At the risk of being pedantic, all the ones I saw are production platforms. Oil rigs/drilling rigs more typically refer to mobile exploratory drilling rigs. (Though colloquially "oil rigs" is widely used.)

I think outside of the industry people just say "oil rigs" for everything from semi-subs to FPSOs to TLPs to monopods to GBSs to jackets.

Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs

#13

Post by ghaff » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 11:13 AM UTC

iamthemonster wrote: post #12

ghaff wrote: post #7

At the risk of being pedantic, all the ones I saw are production platforms. Oil rigs/drilling rigs more typically refer to mobile exploratory drilling rigs. (Though colloquially "oil rigs" is widely used.)

I think outside of the industry people just say "oil rigs" for everything from semi-subs to FPSOs to TLPs to monopods to GBSs to jackets.

I'm sure that's fair. I was in the offshore drilling industry for a few years so I'm more aware of the nuances (at least on the exploratory drilling side) than most.

Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs

#14

Post by matwood » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 11:16 AM UTC

__void wrote: post #8

redder23 wrote: post #4

I find only the very first pic somehow appealing. I do not really see any "beauty" there.

I don't think there is a word to express the melancholic fascination with megastructures, but I certainly suffer from it: ...the intricate patterns of stairs, windows, pergolas and cables, the chaotic and seemingly random arrangement of supports, the organic tumefying rust that de-patterns the otherwise perfect recursiveness... it is the same feeling that makes one appreciate kowloon walled city and Tsutomu Nihei's s…

Same for me with large airports. There's just something about the scale that is fascinating.

Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs

#15

Post by foreverobama » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 11:17 AM UTC

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Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs

#16

Post by Reason077 » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 11:18 AM UTC

If a hostile alien species ever arrives to kill/enslave humanity and plunder all Earth’s resources, I wonder if their harvesters will look something like this? Or will they put more effort into aesthetics?

Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs

#17

Post by andrepd » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 11:19 AM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #9

IMHO This type of beauty is something the "AI" image generators do far failed to reproduce. Sure, they are great at creating "out of this world" images but the beauty of those structures comes from our ability to reason about the features. When you look at these structures, you immediately begin thinking about what is this and why it is there and how would the life on it feel. It has logical cohesion.

Don't know why you're being downvoted, it's obvious you are right. "AI art" is a style transfer and NLP tool. It doesn't exactly produce visual work with meaning, other than by accident.

Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs

#18

Post by CrampusDestrus » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 11:19 AM UTC

redder23 wrote: post #4

I find only the very first pic somehow appealing. I do not really see any "beauty" there.

I think you are conflating the quality of the photo with the quality of the subject

the first pic is probably the best photo, but the other platforms have their unique beauty even if the pics are not on par

Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs

#19

Post by winkelwagen » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 11:22 AM UTC

redder23 wrote: post #4

I find only the very first pic somehow appealing. I do not really see any "beauty" there.

I do think these structures are beautiful. They seem organic and mechanical at the same time. It looks like something that has been constructed to withstand nature in an incredibly contrasted way. It conjures the same amazement I have with large planes taking off, it looks like it shouldn’t work, but it does. I can understand why people don’t find it interesting, but I for one am mesmerized by it.

Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs

#20

Post by loa_in_ » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 11:23 AM UTC

iamthemonster wrote: post #12

ghaff wrote: post #7

At the risk of being pedantic, all the ones I saw are production platforms. Oil rigs/drilling rigs more typically refer to mobile exploratory drilling rigs. (Though colloquially "oil rigs" is widely used.)

I think outside of the industry people just say "oil rigs" for everything from semi-subs to FPSOs to TLPs to monopods to GBSs to jackets.

Yup. It's a rig. It can search or reach for oil among other things.

That said, what does exploratory mean in this context?