Improbable Monument: Final Concept

MONUMENT TO NESTLE BRAND BOTTLED WATER IN MOJAVE DESERT

Created to evidently commemorate responsible bottling policies practiced by Nestle, this 25ft bottle of water will be situated in a picturesque fountain oasis that will have unfortunate, perpetual difficulties in pumping enough water to establish the full effect of the majestic bottle of water. 

Obviously this is a sarcastic monument, to protest Nestle's privatization of water. Nestle has explicitly declared that "access to water is not a public right."


Links for reference:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-privatisation-of-water-nestle-denies-that-water-is-a-fundamental-human-right/5332238

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEFL8ElXHaU

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/us/drought-widens-economic-divide-for-californians.html?_r=0

Improbable Monument: Dumbass Ideas

Here is a dump of some of the ideas I've come up with so far while brainstorming possible ideas:



CHIP BAG MONUMENT--

After blowing through an entire grab bag of assorted snacks with my sister, I idly wondered what it would be like to build a monument dedicated to the deliciousness of Frito Lay brand snack chips, made entirely out of the plastic bags the chips come in.

The "improbable" part of it would come from the sheer impracticality of building something stable and enduring with nothing but such a light, flimsy, easily weather-degradable material. It would also be unorthodox to build a monument for greasy, salty snack foods (although the commentary behind the monument might be interesting in itself). For the sake of construction, however, I doubt I'll go with this option (I have absolutely no idea how I would go about constructing something out of paper bags in sketchup).



SEX TOY MONUMENT--

I read the "no censoring" section of the original project instructions, and true to form, I immediately thought of something that would require censoring.

The idea would be to build some sort of spire-like (dildo) silicon construct, or perhaps a cavern or tunnel of some sort (flesh light) that would also be lined with silicon material. I'm not quite sure how well silicon stands up to long-term outdoor conditions, so I cannot really say how a 25 ft tall dildo would hold up out in the elements (although a flesh light cave might be somewhat more resistant due to its construction. The surface dedication of a sex toy monument  would be the celebration of human sexuality--although, in its deeper layers, it could be a defiant claim on female pleasure, as much of the sex toy industry caters to female patrons and sexual drive.


NORTH KOREAN MONUMENT TO SONY--

The improbability of this particular idea is rather explanatory.

Virtual Placemaking: Dam Foolishness

The basis of this project was sticking a piece of historic propaganda discouraging the Tuttle Creek Reservoir from being built around an area that was most affected by the inevitable dam.

Randolph was one of four cities that were actually submerged by the resulting lake waters that welled up due to the Tuttle Creek Dam in 1962. "Old Randolph", ruins of the town that still stand half-way submerged near the northern part of the lake, can still be seen to this day. It was a politically charged debate that spanded over a decade and even though the slogan "Let's Quit this Dam Foolishness" won Howard Shultz Miller a position in the U.S. House of Representitives in 1952, it did not stop the dam from being built. While the value of the dam was proven during the Flood of 1993, the original flood waters that were caused *by* the dam aren't generally addressed.    

Seeing the Past in Present Tense

The biggest question take-away I got from this article was the question of whether or not there was such a thing as an "accidental" monument? A footprint or fingerprint imprinted in the concrete of some walkway, or perhaps a shoe that was caught somewhere in the air, in the treetops or the cable lines, that no one could or cared to get down. 

Could monuments meant for one memory actually preserve something drastically different? Say, Mount Rushmore--a clear representation of great US presidents, a cornerstone of American pride. What's to say that it's not actually a monument of colonialism, or the great destruction the immigration of European peoples brought to the "New World"? In some lenses, this monument mockingly celebrates known "murderers".

Radical Cartography: References

For referencing this project, I turned to different types of provincial maps:

As well as elevation maps:

as visual and technical references.

Radical Cartography: Finished Touches

While my drafts were becoming more and more complicated, I decided to crank it down some and go with a little more simplistic approach:

The key indicates what sort of "province" every color represents, or the degree of obsession of a fan within their particular fandom. As you can see, the train tracks that travel amongst many of the "provinces" of the island has become "derailed" at some point after entering the "Otaku" territory. This indicates the difficulty that some people have to "pull away" from their particular anime obsession, and how bleak it can be to fall into this type of state.

To underline my point further I did an alternate elevation map of the island of Fandom to further indicate the "peak's" and "absolute lows" that an obsession with anime can elicit. Notice how there is a ring of grossly high elevation (mountains) that ring around the sub-sealevel pit that marks the "Otaku" territory. These mountains are representative of what people who aren't associated with that type of fandom "see" when they look on people with an Otaku complex; something insurmountable and grossly overblown, something that seems wholly inaccessible. In short, it becomes unthinkable that someone could fall into such a state of absolute addiction.  

Radical Cartography Project: Phase One

Due to recent events, I've decided to map out the phases of "Fandom", or the range of interests found in pop culture.

The Red part represents "Obsession", and will have many markers outlined/defined within the perimeters of unhealthy interest. There will be a very fine line in between the Red and the "Acceptable" parts of the island (for fandom interest is its own island of a mental state) such as a creek or some thin forested area, while the train tracks leading into the Red Zone will be damaged beyond repair, preventing/hindering return. The entire Zone will be a ruin-like scape.