The
San Gabriel Mountains are the northern limit of Los Angeles,
the rim of the urban bowl. Though immobile, they are in flux;
moving upwards, due to the mountain building tectonics of the
San Andreas fault - falling down, due to the erosional effects
of winter rains, summer fires, and gravity.
When measured from the base to the top -
the peak of 10,064 foot Mount San Antonio (also known as
Mount Baldy) - the San Gabriels are taller than the Rocky
Mountains. This vertical shift, next to the second largest
city in the United States, presents both a challenge and
an opportunity. At the base of the mountains lies an extensive
system of flood control structures designed to hold back
the cascading debris that tumbles down the disintegrating
mountains. On the peaks of the mountains, antennas radiate
the transmissions of the city - its television, radio, taxis,
fire, police, and telephones – telecommunications that
hold the social fabric of the city together. The mountains
are an ally as well as a menace.
These debris basins and antenna sites show
the divergent links between humans and the wild: At the top,
the mountains are surmounted and used as an electromagnetic
platform of social communication and control, radiating forever
outward. At their base they must be contained, their inevitable
collapse restrained, as they threaten our engineered landscape,
and the fragile order we have established.
Dissipation
The antenna sites depicted in this exhibit form a line along the southernmost
ridges and peaks of the San Gabriels. From this elevation, more than
a mile above the Los Angeles basin, and with proximity to the city, these
sites allow for line-of-site communications, and for the exposure of
the maximum urban area to the electromagnetic emissions of industry,
entertainment, and government. The Forest Service, which owns and manages
most of the San Gabriels, has set aside twenty-seven areas in the Angeles
Forest for “Designated Communications Sites.” The most congested
of these sites, at Mount Wilson, is one of the densest “RF jungles” in
North America. Thousands of feet separate these antennas from the debris
basins below.
Disintegration
Debris basins can be found at the base of many of the vertiginous washes
and canyons in the San Gabriels. The function of the debris basin is
to separate debris, including rocks, mud and vegetation, from the storm
water that flows down the mountains during the winter rainy season and
thereby prevent damage to property and downstream flood control structures.
A debris basin usually consists of an earthen dam, an excavated pit,
and a spillway to channel water past the dam. Pipe spillways, as seen
in the video, are vertical pipes with perforations to allow water to
be separated from debris. Debris basins require constant maintenance
- once they reach about 25% full the debris needs to be removed, trucked
off, and disposed of. Due to encroaching development, disposal sites
for the debris are getting further away, adding to their expense.
Acknowledgements
Research + Production:
Erik Knutzen & Steve Rowell
Matthew Coolidge & Sarah Simons
Special Thanks To:
Matt Maxon, Nicholas Press, Kelly Coyne
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