Rose Garden

Member : MichaelJF

Image description
Ok, how to start... This round I switched from the funny pictures - líke dancing lions - to more serious issues. I interpret a scene I experienced in RL which is heavily loaded with recent history. It is the bunker the German government had build to protect them from an atomic assault. Or better the remains of it. It was abandoned in the late 1990ies. After having visited the short part of the tunnel they saved as a museum with all its exhibits, the view of the empty tunnel at the end of the tour comes totally unexpected, a scene completelly unreal. The lighting, the echoes of the other visitors and the emptyness. I expected to find it piled with rubble. But of course, one cannot simply blast away a bunker which can stand the bomb of Hiroshima at a direct hit. And so I experienced this unreal scene and I saw it living with all the people who - fortunately - never took shelter here (despite some manoeuvres every two years). So why not depict this scene: the empty tunnel with the lighting you can observe in the museum und the ghost of our president being prepared for an tv speech to the part of the nation who survived the atomic attack - and had access to a still working tv-set? (BTW the interior of the tv studio is part of the exhibition at the museum.) The secret name of the bunker was "Rosengarten" ("Rose Garden" in English). The official name was a little bit longer. For further information see "Regierungsbunker (Deutschland)" at the German Wikipedia (de.wikipedia.org) or "Government bunker (Germany)"' at the English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org). At the official Website of the museum (http://ausweichsitz.de) you can klick at the sidebar to the left first at "Museum" and then at "Wissenswertes" and you will find a text in German and English (every paragraph in German followed by the same paragraph in English) which tells about the history of the bunker.

Description of how this image was created
The construction of the ghosts was guided by the hints Bill Pragnell gave in his IRTC Entry, October 2006. I used Poser Jessi and James (the lower resolution) instead of Aiko 3 and Wings and MeshLab instead of Blender. And I tried to cloth them. I implemented the ghosts since they were the only option I saw to emphasize the unreality (or better insanity) of the scene. The sounds of the place cannot be depicted in an image. So ghosts were the only solution to this issue which came to my mind. Fortunately ghosts appear only "after dark". And we are "after the darkness" of the cold war with this picture. An interpretation of the topic I still consider as suitable. BTW a technical issue to POV-users. The tunnel itself - with the exceptions of the side tunnels and the back wall - consists only of isosurfaces with the simple pigment { color White } and a finish derived from Sean Days work I used in the Sphinx-picture earlier. The whole "texture" of the tunnel is therefore only due to the structure of the isosurfaces and the placing of the spotlights. An effect I never exspected in this way. And - of course - many thanks goes to Chris Hormann for providing all his work about isosurfaces. I used the Iso-CSG-Library as well as the IsoWood-Libraries intensively to create the isosurfaces - especially the ground floor.

General statistics
No of ratings	:	9
Min. overall rating	:	18 (8 / 5 / 5)
Max. overall rating	:	51 (17 / 17 / 17)
Sum of rating	:	325 / 540
Date uploaded	:	2012-06-16 10:04:21

Specific details Note: The maximum value below is misleading as the voting system has changed. If the member votes for all the entries and has created one him/herself, there is an automatic 20/20/20 score added to the value (This encourages all members who enter to vote).
Rating type	:	Min : Max : Sum : Out of
Artistic	:	7 : 17 : 107 : 180
Concept	:	5 : 17 : 109 : 180
Technical	:	5 : 17 : 109 : 180
Overall	:	18 : 51 : 325 : 540

Comments by members when rating this image

1.   20-06-2012 Nice scene but could use better lighting. The ambient illumination on everything makes it lose contrast that would give it more atmosphere and sense of depth.