This was the subject of the May 6th, 1999 Open Sewer meeting.
| The Subject: Growth, the Arts, and the American City | In the
April, 1999 issue of Metropolis magazine, Michael Sorkin
wrote an article called "Crap Shoot: Gambling on the
triumph of 'taste' in Las Vegas." In the article, he
states that "Vegas is assuming the status of our
designated city of the future." It's an interesting
thought. Where is the American city headed in the next
century? What are the effects of a dominant culture of
growth and consumption on the arts? A culture of consumption is a rich environment for design professionals- it gives us plenty of "stuff" to design. With this in mind, do we design for a consumer culture without questioning it, or do we assume a leadership role, and try to steer clients toward a more sustainable future? If Las Vegas is a picture of the American city of the future, where do the visual and performance arts fit in to this picutre? Is it possible for an artist to make a living without 'selling out'? What is 'selling out'? What does it mean when an artist's work is 'shoe-horned' to fit into a corporate image? What does it mean when funding for the arts comes from corporations who want to turn art into advertising, or change the content for their own purposes? What does Las Vegas, as a city, mean? Read the article. Think on these things. Expand on them. Build up your verbal ammo. To add to the stew, I'll be sending several regular attendees an excerpt from The Preservationist Manifesto by Charles Siegel called "The Failure of Growth." I think it will be interesting to contrast the views in this text to the mentality behind the rampant growth in American cities like Las Vegas. Sure, it's a pointed discussion. But that's what makes it fun. Date: Thursday, May 6th, 1999. Time: 6:30pm Place: Ooh, La, La Cafe in the Warehouse District, Cleveland, Ohio. >> click here for a location map |