City of worship
Androids worshiping electric cows
'Cows in a polder landscape' is an idyllic visual of the countryside in 18th century Europe. 'x cows in y acres' is a municipal law that requires the farm owners along the highways to maintain x number of cows on their fields at all point of time.
Electric cows graze in the sunlight, in a polder landscape. Grazing on sunlight, their hide is their energy absorbing surface and their belly is their battery. The cows grazing beneath a tree, move with the shadow of the tree, constantly staying out of it. Electric cows cant walk, they roll on tank treads, negotiating the rolling polder landscape. As the sun sets, the electric cows roll back into their barn.
The barns maintain the gable roofed, single storey idyllic appearance from the outside. The municipal by-laws require them to maintain the 18th century aesthetic. But from the inside it is a multi-storeyed building built under ground, running hundreds of feet. Its footprint above the ground remains modest, but inside it is a skyscraper upside down, or a 'ground scraper'. Its spread out, much like the roots of a tree, with each of its branch fulfilling a certain function of a long supply chain. Different barns has different purposes to fulfil. This particular barn, is equipped to milk the battery pods of all the electric cows, leaving them with enough power to go out and spread themselves in formation before dawn the next day.
The barn of electric cows is owned by institutions of maintaining rituals and worship. The recharged battery banks from the barns are used to power androids that worship for human beings. The androids are programmed by millennia of tradition and have no stake in its history. The androids have no history. Its memories are wiped clean upon the completion of each ritual its programmed to fulfil. Androids best function under the algorithms of retrograde amnesia. Androids are rolled out at all times of the day or night, depending on the rituals of worship of the sun, moon or a cow under a tree. Androids can be accessorised. Android can come with a host of bovine requirements like electric cows or goats or chicken, whatever the ritual demands. Androids can be ordered through smart devices that can identify a ritual in need of fulfilment. These devices map the night sky for any impending moments of ritualistic significance. The smart devices, can also order other materials of ritual fulfilment like biodegradable cow-dung, long lasting lime or any other materials, which are sourced from other barns.
The city of barns is a city of rituals. It is laid on either sides of the highway, above ground, and spread elsewhere underground. Androids inhabit this city along with its farm animals. Its powered by its electric farm animals. The city's purpose is to fulfil rituals of people who stay elsewhere. The city is a place of worship.
