The Center for Land Use Interpretation
Autotechnogeoglyphics: Vehicular Test Tracks in America
5 June–27 July 2008
For this exhibition, The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) will present a series of aerial images of different automotive test tracks located across America.
“Like the lines on the Plains of Nazca, automotive test tracks are enigmatic earthen etchings on a huge scale, partly representative, partly enigmatic, pointing towards the future, and the past. They represent the condition of America, land of the automobile, a syndrome that transformed the landscape of the nation, and the world, more than any other. They are the nurseries for the vehicular companions that we can’t seem to live with, or without.
Despite their vastness, often a few square miles in size, these track complexes are a condensation of space, a microcosm of the country, built for subjecting vehicles to all the types of terrain - from interstates, to suburban stop and go; from dirt roads and black ice - that the vehicle might encounter in the real world. The need for space pushes them to the edge of the suburbs, where land is cheaper. And where visitors are less likely, as these are, famously, secret places, where new ideas in this competitive, capital intensive industry, are covertly aired.
Seen from ground level the tracks are supremely surficial, like obscure horizontal bands of bermed earth, beyond a distant fence line. From the air, they are fully exposed, laid out like a diagram, hidden, in plain sight, and curious to behold.”
About the CLUI
“The Center for Land Use Interpretation is a research organization interested in understanding the nature and extent of human interaction with the earth’s surface. The Center embraces a multidisciplinary approach to fulfilling the stated mission, employing conventional research and information processing methodology as well as nontraditional interpretive tools.
The organization was founded in 1994, and since that time it has produced over 30 exhibits on land use themes and regions, for public institutions all over the United States, as well as overseas. Public tours have been conducted in several states, and over ten books have been published by the CLUI. CLUI Archive photographs illustrate journals, popular magazines, and books by other publishers, and have been used in non-CLUI exhibitions, and acquired by art collectors.
The CLUI exists to stimulate discussion, thought, and general interest in the contemporary landscape. Neither an environmental group nor an industry affiliated organization, the work of the Center integrates the many approaches to land use – the many perspectives of the landscape - into a single vision that illustrates the common ground in “land use” debates. At the very least, the Center attempts to emphasize the multiplicity of points of view regarding the utilization of terrestrial and geographic resources.”
Text: The Center for Land Use Interpretation
CLUI main office: 9331 Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232, USA
www.clui.org
