Last year, I wrote about the Geostationary Banana Over Texas, a French-Canadian artist’s dream to launch a gigantic, blimp-like banana into the high wind streams over Texas. The banana would be visible to the naked eye, causing Texans to utter some variation of, “What the….?” when they looked up and saw a banana floating across the sky.
I thought this was really exciting.
When I told my friends about the Geostationary Banana Over Texas, and my intentions to attend the launch, the plans were met with both great interest and deep skepticism. Reactions included: “I can’t believe we’re having a conversation about a gigantic floating banana” and, “Is that legal?” and, “I heard the banana is going extinct. Will that affect the project?”
In the end, it wasn’t the possible disappearance of the Cavendish, or the engineering or legal challenges of putting a banana into airspace, but the inability to raise $1.5 million needed to support the project. A website set up for pledges had received a little over $12,000 at last count. The launch was scheduled for August 2008, and the project has been suspended.
In an email to supporters, the GBOT team claimed abstract success:”…by pioneering the first attempt [to create visual expressions in near-space altitudes], and by being the most successful in pushing forward these types of artistic interventions.”
Yeah, but when will I see a giant banana flying overhead??! I mean, come on, couldn’t this be federally funded? $1.5 million is pocket change to NASA. For less than the cost of a day in Iraq, we could launch a banana over Texas to delight and amuse us for a month. I ask, for the millionth time, where are our national priorities??!
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