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Wendover gets awfully cold in the winter, and most
CLUI operations out here shut down until March. The public facilities,
however, including the exhibit buildings and location-based projects
continue to remain open to the public throughout the year.
Currently on display in the indoor exhibit spaces
is an exhibit by architect Ted Kane, in Exhibit Hall 1, with large
prints that examine the zonal flatness and linearity of the landscape
in the area, and, in Exhibit Hall 2, an investigation and depiction
of the state line, using sculpture, photography, and text, by
Catherine Harris. Both are CLUI Wendover Residence Program participants.
A number of large-scale projects were completed
over the last season, including a 40 foot tall radio tower, designed
by Deborah Stratman, and built by her crew from Chicago. A sort
of scanner/sampler for the invisible radio spectrum of the area,
the tower has a kiosk at its base that enables visitors to listen
to different radio frequencies in the region, such as aviation
channels, fast food drive-thrus, casino security, and others.
There is also a transmit function in the kiosk, with low powered
FM and Citizens Band, so users can communicate with some of the
thousands of truckers, residents, and transients in the area and
on the Interstate.
The design/build team Simparch returned to Wendover
for a few months this year, and completed the first phase of their
South Base project. This involves the creation of a self-contained
life-support facility out on the most extreme edge of the old
airbase, which is possibly one of the most scenic and desolate
places on earth - an isolated, lifeless area established in WW2
for weapons storage, used for assembling test and training versions
of the Fat Man and Little Boy bombs. It is now used for target
practice and for police raid training exercises, as well as a
movie location.
Out there, Simparch has converted an empty, damaged
quonset hut into a functional, even livable base, which is available
for others to use for future projects at South Base. Spending
time at the facility allows people to interact with this environment
in a more profound way, and to witness and participate in the
unusual events that go on in this unseen edge of civilization.
Other developments include the construction of
a garage to house the Landmark Cruiser, a GPS-equipped car that
is programmed with information about the area around Wendover,
and which dispenses information as it is driven. The project should
completed and available for people to check out in the Summer
of 2004. Planning is underway for an open house at CLUI Wendover
for October, 2004.
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| The development of the Center’s
Desert Research Station, in the California desert west of Barstow,
continues, with the addition of a new office and residential structure
to support researchers working on site. A volunteer work party
assembled at the DRS earlier this year to install fencing, and
to prepare the site for the office building. Research on how to
reuse the pond has also been completed.
The Center acquired some land on the northwest
end of the valley, in order to support the Moisture research program
and to perform other field studies. The Moisture group has been
busy through much of November and December, constructing location-sensitive
structures for the collection, retention, and use/reuse of water
and conducting experiments with the creation of micro-climates.
The current phase of the program involves the design and construction
of functional sculptural objects, installed in relation to the
ground, and the hydrologic cycle of the region. More information
on their project can be found at
moisture.greenmuseum.org.
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