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Hidden Valley, Joshua Tree National Park

well at a certain point in Joshua Tree i decided it was better to get out into the park and surrounding area and suck up all the experiences i could, rather than hole up in the house and write and try and make art. one can make art anywhere.  the experience of a time and place can be fleeting.

unfortunately i don’t know that i can truly explain with words the kind of pull that Joshua Tree has for me.  i do know that is is not for everyone.  but it is very special for me.  so it is with a small amount of sadness that have returned to more institutional surroundings and a mechanized lifestyle.  i managed to cram a lot of experiences into a couple weeks including an extremely eventful day with internationally recognized photographer Natasha Peterson.  First, we had a therapeutic and mind-expanding “sound bath” at the Integratron, a structure built with instructions from Venetian aliens and inspired by Tesla technology.  Then we visited Garth, a man who has lived in a stone tee-pee for 30 years while running a hippie commune called “God’s Way, Love“.  Finally, we had an extremely close encounter with a rattlesnake in a cave (my third and final)

so i am in Cincinnati now trying to wrap my head around a few ideas.  i recently completed this internet project, mintabox.com, about information storage, nostalgia and age, and technology.  in the desert, the things i was drawn to the most were the rocks, petroglyphs, and the stars.  i enjoy the strange joshua trees, the creatures like snakes and ringtail cats and gigantic beetles, the sunsets make me want to cry, the dirt, the eccentric people and their personal mythologies and conspiracies.  but the rocks, the glyphs, and the stars have this thing in common, this thing i am interested in–age and presence and mystery, a sense of gravitas.

so i am trying to think about why and how these threads run through my past work and what the next steps are for new works.

here are some more photos from my last few days.

The Integratron – Rejouvnating Sound Baths

I have been thinking a lot about “living” lately, especially since coming here to the town of Joshua Tree. In the midwest it is easy to take for granted the amenities and burdens of suburbia–the structures we live in, the ways we organize our societies, and the groups and ideologies we adopt.  Here, there is still so much space (both for living and for thinking).  It’s not a given that there should be Dollar General store on the corner or that houses should be rectangular, built in close proximity, and have aluminum siding.  Or for that matter, that sundays should be spent at church rather than in The Integratron, a large tholos built in accordance to instructions from aliens from venus.

Even grass is a huge luxury that almost no one in the high desert can afford.  So out of necessity, life and living are different in the remote Mojave than in most parts of the country.  Or at least, that was the plan.  Joshua Tree basically sits just past the edge of the swath of urban sprawl coming from from Los Angeles.  Unfortunately the nearby towns of Yucca Valley and Twenty Nine Palms seem to be succumbing to American homogeneity, with Walmarts, a Burger King (although I do love burger king), Dollar General, etc.  Joshua Tree, sandwiched in the middle and as of now still separated by a few miles of desert, retains an independent local character that is rustic, charming, and of course refreshing.

In the surrounding desert there are many interesting buildings inspired by the natural building movement, an interest in sustainable living, new age spirituality or the simple American desire to be unique and creative.  Artist Bevery Doolittle’s home is a real work of art.  Even Frank Lloyd Wright designed a few buildings here in the town of Joshua Tree, to house the Institute of Mental Physics.

“Small Liberties” Wagon Station – Andrea Zittel with Jonas Hauptman, from Andrea Zittel’s blog

eco-dome, superadobe

The other day I passed two superadobes being built, as well as some interesting pod-like structures out on a hill.  I learned the pods were placed there by internationally renown artist Andrea Zittel as part of a series of collaborative experimental living structures called wagon stations or “Small Liberties”.  For an interesting snapshot of a true proponent of alternative living and “investigative living”, check out this interesting (if somewhat long) video below.  Zittel’s home, as well as the home I am staying in, is an upgraded homesteader house from the 1940’s or 50’s, a time when the government was giving a four acres of land away to anyone who promised to “improve” the land in some way.  As a sidenote, my great grandfather was a homesteader and helped to build the town of Cody Wyoming, with Buffalo Bill Cody and others.  Eccentricity, creativity, and an interest in self-sufficiency have always gone hand in hand (i know that’s three hands, they are alien hands).