you are hereby invited to participate in a grassrootsdigital,
dirtyfast, hip-hop gutbucket distributed project in afrofuturist JES'
GREW.
new orleans has been abandoned.
the coastline is destroyed.
hundreds of thousands are now refugees, and if we measure Reality in
terms of the images presented to us on the news, most of them are
Black. even if we don't, most of them are Black.
what will they return to?
let us imagine the possibilities...,
"... elevated for sure... but would it be naked pre-cast concrete? or
would it be decorated? what would the interiors be like? would the
structures be solar powered? would they have some of those new
condensers that can produce drinkable water from the surrounding air?
would there be individual units? village formations? would they have
hydroponics facilities?" -- David Goldberg (08/31/05)
"...a Baptism of the City? A Yemeyah/Oshun reclamation ritual?
Egyptian celestial boats? Shoplifting barges? A pattern/shape made up
of floating hurricane
lamps?" -- Charles H. Nelson (08/31/05)
"...being constructed of a much more angry/violent cityscape that
will be an amalgam of some well intended 'artful' ideas and straight
nigger-rigging of existing stuff that people are unwilling to rid
themselves of for emotional reasons..." -- Amanda Williams (08/31/05)
this is just the beginning.
take some time to imagine an alternate future for the gulf coast's
cities. make use of but do not let your self be limited by
propaganda, materials science, architecture, sociology or history.
please digitize and send your thoughts, fleeting, fragmented or
fully-developed, be they words (rants, shards of fiction, poems,
rhymes, manifestoes, dreams, prayers,) back-of-the-envelope
architectural sketches, inspired CAD renderings, photoshop hacks,
paintings, images of maquettes, etc. to david@smashtv.com
the goal is for them to be collected on a website and hopefully
printed in a portable booklet that will find its way into the flow of
materials on its way into the hands of gulf coast refugees.
Work fast, as every CLOSURE is an OPENING for only so long.
thank you for your attention.
I remember reading about an airport in Japan that was constructed upon a platform that floats upon the water. I've also seen a development in the Netherlands (I think) where houses are built upon pontoons and 'docked' at permanent bays to plug into gas, water and electric modules.
The timing is right for a TVA-sized initiative to rebuild New Orleans and the coastal areas of MS and AL.
Posted by: MIB at September 1, 2005 02:16 PM