Chapter 1624 - Exhibition
Chapter 1624: Exhibition
“Is this the Tiangong City Central Museum?”
Lu Zhou looked at the navigation arrows through his AR glasses. He stood in front of a beautiful building while looking at the portrait and biography of the person on the large holographic screen that was suspended at the front entrance.
John Griffin was born on January 13, 2071, to a family of engineers in London, North Sea Alliance. In his early years, he was influenced by his family and worked as an airline engineer at a mining station in the asteroid belt. After he resigned, he devoted himself to painting. Because of his work on the edge of civilization, his early style of painting tended to be gloomy and dark.
At the beginning of the century, he sold his studio in London and moved to Mars, where he went on a five-year travel journey. The changes in environments greatly changed his painting style. He had become one of the leaders of contemporary impressionist painters.
“His masterpieces include ‘Dead Universe’, ‘Redemption’, ‘Dawn of the Sun’…”
While muttering in a low voice, Lu Zhou subconsciously opened the search engine and searched one by one on how much the paintings were worth.
Although this might be a bit unrefined, for a layman, this was probably the most intuitive way to understand the artistic value of a painting.
At this moment, a strange voice suddenly came from behind him.
“Isn’t it better to feel with your eyes than to search on the Internet?”
Lu Zhou looked back and saw a man in his fifties standing there. He was wearing a beige vest and a pair of black-framed glasses, and his curly hair was draped over his shoulders. He looked quite refined and easy-going.
“Allow me to introduce myself. I’m John Griffin.” The man nodded slightly towards Lu Zhou, reached out his right hand, and said, “It’s nice to meet you, the greatest scholar of our solar system.”
“I don’t dare to take that title.”
“You are as humble as the rumor says.” John Griffin smiled and continued in a gentle tone, “I didn’t see your name on the visitor list, so I didn’t expect you to come. Can you allow me to take you around?”
Lu Zhou wanted to say that he didn’t plan to come, but because the afternoon meeting was too boring and he had a ticket, he decided he might as well come.
But seeing how sincere Mr. Griffin was, Lu Zhou felt that if he were to tell him the truth, it would be a little impolite, so he nodded and accepted his kindness.
“Sure, thanks.”
Griffin smiled on his face and made an inviting gesture.
“Come with me.”
Following Griffin’s footsteps, Lu Zhou walked into the museum. The moment he stepped into the museum, the scenery in front of him suddenly changed.
He was in the wilderness.
The sky was fiery red, and the grass was ocean blue. The mushrooms were like towering trees, with umbrella leaves propping up a magnificent dome.
The light source that sprinkled down from the ceiling seemed to come from a distant world, touching the ground with a misty and dreamlike feeling. The light particles radiating blue light floated among the mushrooms.
Lu Zhou looked at the dream-like world in shock. Although he knew it was just light and shadow projected by a holographic device, he was still in awe.
“Unbelievable, where is this?”
“My dream… More than 20 years ago, when I was working at a mining company, this was the fantasy generated by the colorful starry sky.” Griffin smiled faintly and continued, “With over 20 years of experience, I have been trying to use artistic techniques to turn that dream about the universe into reality.”
Lu Zhou: “Where’s the painting?”
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“You can see it with your glasses.”
Lu Zhou put on a pair of AR glasses. Almost as soon as he put on his glasses, the world lost its color in an instant.
Paintings were hung on booths for the visitors to enjoy.
“Very creative idea…” Taking off his glasses, Lu Zhou glanced around and said in admiration, “The world you see with glasses is reality, but when you take off your glasses, you see illusion… Although I can’t describe this feeling from an artistic point of view, your understanding of beauty is quite shocking.”
“It is my honor to receive your affirmation.” Griffin smiled slightly as he continued, “Speaking of which, I’ve always been curious about how you think of art as a scholar.”
Lu Zhou: “Art is art. Is there any other explanation?”
“Interesting point, I think so too.” Griffin turned his gaze to the world in front of him and continued, “Art is art. It is also a kind of culture, but it is related to culture in a broad sense. It is a philosophical understanding of man’s perception of beauty, self, and the universe, and all things that exist in nature. The perceptual thinking it requires is completely different from the rational thinking required by science.”
Lu Zhou glanced at him.
“I don’t know if it is completely different. Science does require more reasoning. However, perceptual thinking can often help us go further on the road of exploring the unknown.”
“Is that so? I’m glad to hear that you have such a high evaluation of perceptual thinking. In fact, in addition to depicting dreams over the years, I have also tried to combine art and science to create new art forms… Just like what you see now.” Professor Griffin said with a smile on his face while looking at the lush fantasy forest in front of him, “Maybe in a certain corner of this universe, there really exists a place that can make all lives feel beauty in an unprecedented form.”
Gaia world?
During Lu Zhou’s period of sleep, he had seen such a world.
“This does sound interesting.”
“Right?” Griffin smiled lightly and turned his gaze to Lu Zhou. “I admire you in my heart. All I can do is manifest imagination, but you can turn imagination into reality.”
With that, he reached out his hand and shook Lu Zhou’s hand gently. He then politely expressed his respect and gratitude.
“Thank you for taking the time from your busy schedule to visit my exhibition. I wish you a great day.”
Lu Zhou smiled and nodded. He then said softly, “I wish you a great day too.”
At the same time, not far from the museum, Yan Gang, the president of the Tiangong Bank, gently pushed the AR glasses up the bridge of his nose.
After staring at the person in front of him for a long time, he said hesitantly, “Is that… Academician Lu?”
“I didn’t expect Academician Lu to be interested in our Star System Colonization Plan.” Gladstone, who was standing next to him, showed an unexpected expression on his face as he said with a thought-provoking smile, “This is really surprising. ”
Yan Gang’s face showed a thoughtful expression.
To be honest, as an astute banker, although he was interested in high-quality investment projects, he did not like the blabbering guy next to him.
After all, only East Asia Heavy Industries had mastered warp speed technology, and the only application was on the Qinling of the First Fleet. Regardless of whether the resources of Alpha Centauri were worthy of their colonial ships, even if they were worth it, they might not be able to go at all.
But if Academician Lu himself supported the Star System Colonization Plan…
Maybe the commercialization of warp speed technology is possible?
Once the market for trans-light-year travel became possible, Alpha Centauri, the closest star to the solar system would undoubtedly be the most promising one to be included in the territory of human civilization.
So now…
We were indeed too cautious about the credit rating given to the Alpha Centauri Colonization Fund.
Gladstone continued in a persuasive tone, “100 billion credit points. If we use it to build a house, we will only receive a piece of useless steel and concrete. But if we invest in our dreams, we can get a whole new world. Trust me. It has been proven countless times in history that investing in the new world is a guaranteed profitable business.”
Yan Gang replied, “There is no such thing as a guaranteed profitable business in this world. Remember the world’s first public company that went bankrupt? They were in the business of exploring new worlds.”
After a pause, Yan Gang glanced at Gladstone with a disappointed expression on his face. He adjusted his collar and suddenly changed the conversation.
“But I’ll choose to believe you this time.”