Zion on the Prairie, the architecture of a very particular kind of utopia, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). An article by Adam Marcus on the environment created by this briefly notorious polygamist sect in Eldorado, Texas. This is design with a very particular brief: 'the typical FLDS house strives to project the idealized image of American domesticity, yet everything is scaled up in size as needed in order to accommodate the numerous sister-wives, as the brides are called, and scores of children who live inside'. The piece, in Museo Magazine, comes with a useful interactive map of the compound. See also our earlier post on Mormon architecture.

This is an architecture of preparation: 'The logistical foresight is staggering; the FLDS were able to build, from nothing, an infrastructural apparatus that includes a water pumping station; wastewater treatment plant; provisions for food including agricultural fields, orchards, livestock pens, and grain silos; and education, healthcare, and security systems, while also making plans for the construction of future buildings, with the intent of supporting a population in the thousands', topped off with fortified religious structures that embody 'American tradition of neoclassical municipal building that can be found in small towns throughout the country'.

Compare and contrast to another (speculative) utopian community. The Venus Project offers a comprehensive guide to creating a new future (via No Tech Magazine). Although the Project states explicitly that it is neither 'utopian nor Orwellian, nor does it reflect the dreams of impractical idealists', the Venus Project is unashamedly idealist, with a glossy, retro-modern cityscape - a blend of Corb, Calatrava, Mayer H and Niemeyer - purporting to be the future backdrop for a new society built on a set of lofty ambitions (starting with an experimental city and theme park).

The Venus Project is driven by what one would now call an old-fashioned faith in the power of technology to 'banish boredom and repetition'. These city renderings and transport concepts are straight out of the pages of Eagle or 2000AD or even the work of Luigi Colani, all of which posited the survival of base human and corporate instincts as driving factors in tomorrow's world. Instead, Jacque Fresco ('project founder and director') has created a lifeless, empty urbanism, devoid of human feeling or presence, all in the name of progress towards a world of endless leisure. Yet seen side by side with the Eldorado complex, and it appears that each shares a touching faith in the role of architecture in shaping behaviour and expectations. See also wikipedia's list of utopian communities.

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We used to notice slight spikes in traffic when we led with an image, but these seem to have tailed off (as has traffic in general). Things will always be about physical things but the role of text and analysis has and always will be central to the publication (although readers might have noticed that the physical publication itself has been in an extremely long stretch of self-imposed limbo). As talk of design, objects and collections shifts from the linguistic to the strictly visual, it seems ever more important to write about objects and the role they play in contemporary life - and, by definition, the role that collecting and collections play as well - rather than simply add to the ever-growing museum that is the internet. It seems increasingly clear to us that things' role is not one of curator, but guide.

An Ambitious Project Collapsing, a weblog with an emphasis on the found photograph / old negatives scanned by Jason Lapeyre / images from Andrew Bush's Driving While Standing Still project at tmn / a treasure trove of contemporary radio: shows by Adam and Joe and Chris Morris for download.

Basically, at the moment, every time someone watches a video on YouTube, it costs Google about 10¢ / Even Cleveland, a weblog / the Waldo Wiki / Interstate Outlaws, a remake of a classic 90s PC game / watch e-commerce take place at the Zappos Map (via atlas(t)).

A selection of retro flickr groups: Atomic Housewives; vintage cook books; vintage advertising; Vintage Craft and Needlework magazines. Other groups that caught our eye: Xeroxes, Scans, and Faxes; Scotland: Then and Now; Vintage Engravings, Etchings, Lithographs and Wood-block Prints.

More alternative collections: women losing their shoes in movies / Welcome to the Time Machine! Bikini Science Chronology, via Coudal, which also links WebUrbanist's fine set of 20 iconic concept cars / Microkhan, a weblog (via, via) / and still the ephemera keeps coming: Pennsylvania Turnpike System circa 1953 and John F. Kennedy Int'l Airport 1964, two souvenir booklets / 3600 VHS video covers, helpfully placed in alphabetical order.

RIP JG Ballard: watch Ballardian for the tributes. And, of course, Metafilter for the links.

Labels: architecture, collecting

posted by things at 21:15 / 1 comments