las vegas and apocylptic urbanism
Marina Zurkow and I are working on a new project for a public art conference in Las Vegas this June. We want to do something around the water issue there and have dug up some interesting facts:
--Las Vegans' overconsumption of water: 360 gallons daily per capita versus 211 in Los Angeles, 160 in Tucson, or 110 in Oakland.
--According to advocates of an ecologically sound urbanism, Las Vegas has (1) abandoned a responsible water ethic; (2) fragmented local government and subordinated it to private land-use planning; (3) produced a negligible amount of public space; (4) refused to use "hazard zoning" to mitigate natural disaster and preserve landscape; (5) dispersed land uses over an enormous area; (6) accepted the resulting dictatorship of the automobile; and (7) tolerated extreme social and, especially, racial inequality.
--The combination of waste heat and vast paved surfaces transforms the city into a scorching "heat island" whose nightly temperatures are frequently 5 to 10 degrees hotter than the surrounding desert.
--Las Vegas has been generating tens of thousands of new jobs in gaming, construction, and related services.
--In January 2007, Moscow recorded temperatures of 40 degrees, the highest ever on record.
**Mike Davis has a great piece on Vegas in Sierra Magazine called House of Cards.
This last fact is relevant only because we are seriously considering creating a piece which involves an out-of-work Russian ice sculptor displaced due to global warming. In a gesture of cultural good will we plan to bring him to Las Vegas to carve small replicas of the polar ice caps somewhere on the strip. These ice sculptures will melt and the water recycled and re-frozen into finger-size ice rings, which people can wear in a commitment ceremony to "be at one" with nature. While the ice rings can be sucked, nibbled, licked, or eaten, this only accelerates their dissolution. In the end, Arroyo Royal (potential working title for the piece) not only models a production cycle of sheherazadian dimensions, but also creates a context for reflection on urban renewal Vegas-style. More on this soon. CEArts Link is generously helping to fund the travel and visa of our ice artisan, if only we can find him!
perhaps he is here: 