Nearing the end of our quarter we are working to develop our final narratives based on our exploration of Owens Lake. We have utilized a variety of mediums and poetic tools to help expand our perspective of the dynamic forces that are shaping this landscape and we are moving into the final production phases of conceptualizing our personal visions for the potential of the lake.
This project is challenging because there are a myriad of factors that aim to limit the potential creativity we may express within the context of the lake (for instance existing infrastructure may be difficult to alter, LADWP would most likely not be willing to pay for the extent of development we are suggesting, the massive scale of the lake makes designing the entirety of this landscape a daunting task, etc.), but once we can get past worrying about these impediments it becomes easier to think of the assignment as a personal exploration for understanding how we perceive the landscape and for pushing the limits on what we thought was possible in terms of developing a complex and interesting landscape experience. This is what school is for, allowing us to approach problems as a child might…with no conception of obstacles and a somewhat ignorant bliss surrounding the complexity of the political and technical opposition that may await our designs in the real world. While it will be ultimately be necessary for us to ground our designs in research and policy discussions, I feel it is important to approach our projects with a child-like curiosity and awareness, both now and in the future, because we have to think about the greatest possible outcome regardless of perceived obstacles or else we will never be able to transcend those things that we believe are keeping us from creating the viable reality we imagine.
Aqueduct Futures 