There will be more developed over the coming months. Stay tuned.
This project is the construction of a story about an island that is actually many islands all occupying the same place, space, and time that is many places, spaces, and times. (The story is really about making stuff and how the place in the story and maps is really connected to other people and places and times and how we tend not to see that because we are really very committed to the way the world appears to us. A story is just another way of explaining something, a fiction that is really something about the real. Design is not comfortable with fictions, but there is a grand tradition of this from the likes of Superstudio, Archigram, Fluxus, John Hearfield, Dunne and Raby, Metahaven … This is a short list. It must be longer, deeper, richer, dumber, more beautiful, harder, tastier …)
The islands are Vinalhaven, Alameda (where I am currently), Thomas Moore’s Utopia, and Fluxcity (AKA Ginger Island) - an island nearly bought by George Maciunas in 1969.
I am providing a collection of stories about the island that is really many islands that in the end is really only one story. The story is told through words, images, and maps. The story will be updated over the course of the inquiry.
The first story is a hack Yuri Lotman's chapter “The Symbolism of Saint Petersburg” from his book “Universe of the Mind.” In this hack cities are now islands and major references are transposed to Vinalhaven Maine. This is one layer or fragment of the master story of the composite island. While this is specific to Vinalhaven, it can be shared with the other islands.
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| Base map for exploring the island |
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| Marty |
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| The Fortress |
