Day 1: "Bus" Tour

ON ROAD-TRIPPING 

Today was Day One on the road. We departed from Salt Lake City at 9:30am and started our CLUI (Center For Land Use Interpretation) Land Use Database "bus tour". Brent and Shana had an App on their iPhone that allowed for surround sound announcements and tour updates. We drove past some of the sites with a brief and simple introduction and then spent an hour exploring other sites. The sites brought up a lot of questions for the group, leaving us curious about the different histories that have evolved in the desolate parts of Utah. 

TOP 3 CLUI SITES 

1. Saltair Ruins 
Several attempted resorts have come and gone from the coast of Salt Lake, but due to the fluctuating levels of water, awful smell of the occasional exposed bottom of the lake, and multiple flooding incidents no resort lasted very long given the harsh conditions. 

**on a personal note** I was able to do some recordings for my continued "Location Studies" project that analyzes the relationship between bodies in movement against a variety of landscapes, this first study takes place at the south coast of Salt Lake, where the Saltair Resort ruins once were

2. Smelter Tower 
This tower is 1,215 ft tall and is just a little bit shorter than the Empire State building. The sense of scale against the mountains is deceiving, can you imagine a sky scraper from NYC in this environment? 





















3. Iosepa 
This is a Polynesian settlement from the late 1800's-early 1900's. Little of the structures of the settlement remain except for the memorial and graveyard. Accompanying this solem memorial to the Mormon settlers is a basketball court, an abandoned tether ball stand, and plenty of chairs and benches to house a large scale gathering. 

**another site for "Location Studies"**

ON ENTROPY (notes from Robert Smithson reading): 

"Entropy Made Visible" by Robert Smithson was written in 1973 and was my first introduction to the Southwest readings organized by Brent and Shana. I needed to look up the definition of entropy for starters, just to make sure I was fully understanding the article. 

After gathering my understanding of the word as a "slow declination" or "erosion" or "changing state" of something that can not be fixed, the topic of disaster and desire stood out to me: 

“I know when I was a kid I used to love to watch the hurricanes come and blow the trees down and rip up the sidewalks. I mean it fascinated me. There’s a kind of pleasure that one receives on that level. Yet there is this desire for something more tranquil - like babbling brooks and pastorals and wooded glens.” 

I felt connected to this quote based on my own experiences with “disaster”. Although I have never witnessed a hurricane, I also was intrigued by dangerous weather as well as disastrous reports at a young age. It isn’t that you want to enjoy them, in fact, you almost feel guilty for enjoying those sorts of occurrences, but sometimes I believe it is the thrill behind the unknown and the waiting of an event to unfold. Our media strongly dictates our perceptions of these disaster reports. Personally, I believe it is because people are eager for something to talk about, a spectacle. It is the reality that not everything is perfect, and perhaps in a sense people are relieved. If life was perfect, we may become bored with our day-to-day. 

After spending the first day in the desert, I question what information is being withheld from us in the testing grounds of the desert. I also consider the decline of Iosepa, and its strange character that it carries as it sits there, empty. 

ON PRIMAL SCREAM THERAPY: 

Before arriving at the hotel, we completed our time in the desert with a scream. Amazed by the silence of the never ending environment, we wondered if anyone would have been able to hear us. Nonetheless, it relieved some of the pent up energy (and exhaustion) from a long trip in a fifteen passenger van. Shana won the durational award at the end of the day.

-Jenna Knapp