Fantastic Border
Planned cities and structures that never happened
Superstudio, Supersurface Sunset, 1971
I’m giving a series of art talks in the high desert looking at what were, or are, bleeding edge ideas and technique.
The Present Age
Moholy-Nagy and visual experiments in Texas
There Goes Another Millennium
The year 2000 and Y2K images of the future
Truly Human Technology
Sculptures of light from MIT to Corpus Christi
Fantastic Border
Planned cities and structures that never happened
For Fantastic Border I trace the near fetishization of “the border” as a laboratory for the future across every political spectrum. In the public imagination, borderlands are sometimes lawless, nearly always empty, and almost always mythologized.
It will be a unique pleasure to share with a small group a little about the numerous grand schemes architects, billionaires, railroad tycoons, and governments have proposed over decades —all with the underlying motivation to stake a claim on the future and create power from territory.
We will also notice present-day border theater and media tropes that encourage people to make conclusions and interpretations about a space they themselves have never visited and might not be able to realistically describe.
If there is time we will open up the conversation to explore why these megaprojects failed and do a quick survey of a number of major futuristic city proposals around the world.
Presentation is in person, salon style, at the office next to St James' on N 6th. Please share if you're so moved to. Come prepared to love thy neighbor.
