Project commissioned by MASS
MoCA for the exhibition "The
Believers" / with Yoshua Okon / April 26 - September 23rd, 2007
Plan B presents research
on alternative and utopian communities from around the world, mostly from the
20th century. Each community was founded as a rejection of the predominate culture
and society surrounding it.
These communities are depicted with images and located on the
map of their home continent in the Dymaxion Projections slideshow. Detailed
information on each of the communities may be found in the five continental
binders presented in the Geodesic Den tent. In the center of the tent, visitors
can cut and fold a Dymaxion map to create their own world to take home.
The Dymaxion map was patented by Buckminster Fuller in 1946.
He developed the map both to diminish the distortion that comes with most global
projections and to demonstrate our geographic proximities not evident in conventional
western maps where the United States or Europe are always in the center.
Plan B represents
the first small steps towards our planning of a new community. The research
presented here will inform the process of planning and establishing this new
community which will most likely be located somewhere in rural Mexico.
Support,
research, planning & installation by Matthew Au / curated by Nato Thomson & Liz Thomas