I remember reading about this last January, and now I see via Bee at Backreaction that it’s in the news again.
Floating banana’s appeal for funding slips
Despite getting about $105,000 from Quebec and federal art-funding agencies, Canadian artist Cesar Saez’s flying-banana project appears to be meeting turbulence. According to his project’s webpage, the Geostationary Banana Over Texas has failed to get enough grassroots funding to ensure its planned launch date in August.
[…]
People can think it’s a hoax,” Mr. Arpin added, “but artists have been doing a lot of interesting things that a lot of people haven’t been able to follow. He [Mr. Saez] is pushing the boundaries and letting people think outside the box – or the fruit basket.”
Maybe some people thought it was a hoax because you can’t get a helium balloon high enough to be in a geostationary orbit, and a geostationary orbit can’t exist over Texas. Geostationary is a scientific/technical term. It has a specific meaning. If you just make crap up, some people won’t take you seriously.
The project’s Web-based fundraising drive says it needs $1.5-million.
Oooh. My badger project needs $1.5 million. I can’t describe how badly it needs it. Pony up, people. Or at least start buying some t-shirts.
Well, I suppose technically it doesn’t claim to be in geostationary orbit, just that it’s “geostationary”. With enough stretching the terminology I guess I could claim I’m geostationary right now, sitting in a chair.
The thing that stands out is that real or hoax, a pretty good chunk of taxpayer money was spent on it. I realize every government sometimes spends money on weird things, but a hundred grand on a possibly fake banana floating over another country? Maybe I should have gone into the “art” business myself.