PLANO B CROSSING THE U.S. TRYING TO BUILD AN ALTERNATIVE IDEA OF PROGRESS... WOULD YOU GIVE US A HAND?
CHECK OUT THE SIAMESE BLOG SONGLINE-THE DIARY WHERE THINGS ARE POSTED AS THEY ARE HAPPENING

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.

IN THE (RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME)

Occasionally we stop to take some pictures, relax or eat. This time we stopped to make one of the words of the Songline. We were looking for a road with a view and this one, somewhere on HWY 50 - The loneliest road in America, seemed perfect.
The word was TO and the plan was to place newspapers in one lane of the road making the letters. It was windy and the newspapers were flying away as soon as we placed them on the pavement. After a couple of trials we were ready to give up. In fact we did give up and moved towards the car.

That's when we realized this dog, looking at us:

The dog was lying, didn't seem to be hurt, there was food around and an empty bowl. It seemed that she (we found out latter that it was a she) had been abandoned, with some food and water.
At the time we didn't notice some marks from tires on the asphalt.
Once we took the water from the car the dog stood up and started drinking as we poured it into the bowl. The entire gallon disappeared in no time!

As we were getting the car ready to take her with us, another car pulled over. The driver asked us if that was our dog - we said no. So, she said, let us take the dog, Mattie is her name, I have the contacts of the owner, there was an accident on the 15th and the dog has been lost ever since.
It seemed weird that two people suddenly appearing from nowhere would have that much information about a lost dog ... anyway, this seemed the best chance of getting the dog out of that place. So we gave our emails and asked them to send us some images of the dog with the owner.
We decided to make one word in this place. We still had some words to do. The word TO didn't seem appropriate, so we chose IN THE. There was some dog food in small squared shapes around that we used to make the word, as if it was a roman mosaic.

And off we went on our way across Nevada.
After some miles there was this small city called Austin. We decided to stop for a meal at a curious looking bar called International. As we were going in we noticed a sign in the old western way saying reward.
The description corresponded exactly to the dog we had just left. In the sign was also the name of the dog and the contact of the owners.

So that was how the ladies knew all that information! And the $1000 the likely reason for not having mentioned us the entire story ...

In any case, we called the owners informing them of what had happened and asking to please send us some images of Mattie.
We just got them. There's one image of Mattie recovering and another from the truck where she was going.
This was the time in our journey that made us most happy for just being here: in the right place at the right time.