The Spoils of Dust
Subtitle: Reinventing the Lake that Made Los Angeles
Publisher: Applied Research & Design; ORO Editions
Published: Nov 15, 2018
Language: eng
Format: paperback
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9781940743486
Description: Once the third largest lake in California, and among the world's greatest air pollution offenders, the deadened Owens Lake was for decades merely a catastrophic footnote to the most notorious water grab in modern history. Now, the lake has been re-assembled to exceed the value of what was lost - without refilling its shores and depriving Los Angeles of its water supply. In 'The spoils of dust' the lake's peculiar redemption is the backdrop for investigating contemporary relationships between landscape design, control, and perception. The lake-like terrain is our most intimate display of modern technocratic vision and exposes the limits of our invention and control of infrastructural ecologies. Whether by observations of dust or scenery, it is as much the product of how we perceive and value landscape today. Answering its analysis, the book concludes with a visual atlas and proposal to induce more imaginative outcomes and perceptions.
Notes: Source title: The Spoils of Dust: Reinventing the Lake that Made Los Angeles