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What if? Metropolis Influence Map

What if? Metropolis - Artist Research - Alexander Calder

Artist Reasearch Alexander Calder by Ian Garling

What if Metropolis - Travelogue - Resit

Approaching the city of Calder can only be done by foot. You must walk through a vast and thick jungle, with a canopy that for miles until you even get a glimpse of the city, along with avoiding the various traps along the way. One of the signs that you are approaching the city is hearing the great roar of the fast moving river located deep within the jungle. When arriving at this river you are greeted with a surprising sight. A giant man made water turbine. When looking at this structure due to the canopy of the trees and the sheer size of it you have no choice but to only look at the bottom first. When you reach the edge of the river you finally have a chance to look up. This is when you get to see the city. The water turbine goes up about 70 feet in the air. Not only is it a source of power for the city, but it acts as the main pillar for the city. The city is built using long thick metal pipes using the weights of the assorted shapes and sizes of buildings acting as counter weights to keep the pipes level. The city has two main thick pipes which balance on top of one another at the top of the pillar. At the end of these pipes there are more pipes having down balancing off one another. At the end of the crosses of pipes this is where you will find the city's buildings. They hang down from the end of the pipes and there are a range of different sized and shaped houses as throughout the city the houses are used as a counter weight to keep the pipe or other building in the air. The combination of number of pipes and houses is different at each end of the two large pipes providing almost different styles of structures, giving the city several towns. 

One of the most interesting thing about this city is that it is constantly moving. The water turbine, along with powering the city, acts as a motor keeping the two main pipes constantly slowly moving, making the other parts of the city hanging from these rotate. The city rotates once a day, allowing the population to use there location as a reference for the time. The pipes which hold the city up in the air are not only a structure to allow the city to be in the air but being hollow on the inside and flattened along the bottom these are used as roads, allowing the residents to travel to different parts of the city protected and with ease.

 The people from the city rarely step foot on the ground. The only occasion this happens is when food is scarce. The main food resources for the city are birds from the air and fish from the water, along with fresh vegetables grown in one of the towns. Many of the people in the city are skilled with bows and arrows and use these to catch their own birds. They use a specially designed bow with a line and reel to allow them to easily pull in what birds they catch. The fish come from a part of the city which acts as a fishing village. Constantly through out the day they raise and lower giant fishing nets pulling in large hauls of different kinds of fish from the fast moving waters below. These food sources are usually enough to support the whole city through out the year. At times food from the air can become low due to birds migrating and this is when the towns people will go to the ground to hunt. To get to the ground there is a large lift along the inside of the main pillar which can transport several men and equipment up and down. The people of the city use traps to hunt as this allows

them to be on the ground for as little time as possible as they feel threatened from all of the dangerous animals that inhabit the jungle. They go to the ground, set as many traps as possible within a time limit they set depending on how much food the city is in need of, then return to the city for the night, checking the traps in the morning then returning their catches to the city. 

The buildings of the city are the most important part of the cities structure. This is due to them acting as counter weights keeping the pipes level. The shapes and weight of the houses changes from town to town and generally from house to house, each being slightly unique in their own way. Above the two main poles which make the city is a small building held up by a think pillar going through the two pipes all the way to the water generator. This is the cities main control tower. In here they control the cities water intake and filtration from the river. The electricity provided from the generator and the distribution of this electricity. They also watch the cities rotation keeping it as a constant speed at all times. They also act as the cities security controlling the lift, the only way of accessing the ground.

The city of Calder is not an easy one to get to and once getting to is almost impossible to actually enter, the security will rarely let someone who is not a resident into their city as they find other cultures a threat, after being secluded for so long. If lucky enough to get inside you will witness the calm and kind nature of the people who live there, thriving off each other and providing a safe haven for everyone who lives in this secluded city.