SONGLINE – IDEA: TO

The idea of progress has been intertwined, since the 19th century, to the quest of the american colonizers towards the west. The coincidence of that movement, with an astounding economical growth and technological development, has made possible the perception of progress as a linear, one-way path.

In the field of architecture, progress has been made visible through the replacement of ancient building techniques by others that make use of industrially transformed materials, such as reinforced concrete, plastics or steel, and which have made possible the high-rise sprawl.

The U turn, so to speak, and the resulting impact against the WTC on September 11, of two airplanes on their way to the west, symbolically attacked the linear narrative behind the idea of progress. The present demonstration of the fragilities of the capitalist model, as well as the expectation brought about by the change in the US presidency, makes it interesting to engage in a critical westward trip.

The voyage that we propose is related to an existing commitment that the office Plano B has in May, to coordinate a rammed earth workshop in El Rito, New Mexico. To that workshop we propose to add another 5 along a defined (but not definitive) route: NY, Chicago, Washington, Auburn, El Rito, and San Francisco.

At each workshop words from a secret sentence will be constructed taken from the book "Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit" by Joshua Foa Dienstag. The sentence we have chosen to build, proposes an alternative perception of the idea of progress. Without denying that the concept of progress is intrinsic to a technology driven civilization, the sentence appeals nevertheless for a reduction in the expectation that progress might provide hope for an imperfect, biological and finite species.

The words will be constructed with the materials, the techniques and the volunteers available at each time. The words will be recorded in some medium, posted on an internet blog in their correct relative position in the sentence, but in the random sequence in which they are produced.

This is the blog where the disclosure of the sentence will take place.

TO

In the previous post we were already out of our programmed route. After leaving New Mexico the Songline should have headed southwest towards Arizona. Instead, a shorter travel distance to San Francisco was taken, going through Colorado, Utah and Nevada. This was mainly for time sake given that we stayed longer than expected in New Mexico.

In El Rito we had already tested the construction of the word TO. The ambitious idea was to make a citation of David Hockney's Pearblossom Hwy, 11-18th April 1986. One road made of superimposed images, with funny details throughout the entire collage. The purpose was to make visible the deceptive goal of reaching a destination. Roads are traveled to go somewhere and to come from somewhere. They get us there and back. To and from can refer to the same place, every destination is a departure place as well. That is disturbing, even though is obvious, because it means that we are always missing the goal. Going to somewhere is always and at the same time getting from somewhere. The word to establishes motion in speech but not a destination. So the word to only makes sense as a process of dislocation, always undetermined, never really focused but diverging indefinitely.

After the word was done we waited for the wind coming in the opposite direction to blow the newspapers off the road to where we were coming from in the first place.

Apart from all this, the photo composition really needs to be worked...