Whitnall Utility Corridor

WHITNALL UTILITY CORRIDOR

Had this tunnel been built it would be the longest highway tunnel in California, and even today would rank as the third longest highway tunnel in the USA!

Despite the existence of the power lines, the Whitnall Parkway/Freeway continued to appear on proposed freeway maps well into the 1960's.

The current Whitnall Highway is an unusual configuration of wide residential streets, sometimes with a broad center strip converted into a park-like setting.

In other places Whitnall Highway disappears into undeveloped lots only to reappear a quarter mile away for non-residential uses, most often as a park or nursery.

In 1990, the EPA recommended that low-frequency EMF's be considered a class B carcinogen, like radon (a radioactive gas).

Some investigators believe that disturbances in the local EMF field are a direct indication of ghost activity.

NEVER WAS

The Welcome Event

The seven day festival uses the length of the Whitnall Utility Corridor to facilitate site

specific performances. Each of these performances will occur during a specific time in

the evening and in succession move the audience across the corridor.

The first event will first unite the all areas of the corridor by remarking the original

footprint. The next 6 days will occur in selected spaces for their physical characteristics:

green nursery, urban parks with limited activity, parking for car inventory, and empty lots

with minimal or no vegetation. Each of these events will be performances that will use

these aspects of open space and EMF to reveal unexpected uses.

How does this expose an in-between space?

The series of events exposes its historical background, celebrates hidden dimensions

of urban planning and electrical magnetic fields, and questions the future potentials for

the space.

What is the dialogue?

Public utilities and the spaces they occupy are not intended primarily for public

recreation or as even a common space for communities to share. These are support

spaces for the city’s infrastructure, the electrical skeleton turned inside out.

The Whitnall Corridor cannot be masked- it is on constant display in X,Y, and Z. The air

between the towers, their wires and the ground is the Z-axis leftovers. You can walk or

travel between these areas, but find yourself limited due unexpected consequences

(metallic balloons hitting wires, narrow greenspaces, and roadways that dissect and

surround nearly every area of the corridor).

Since they were never intended to be public commons, but end up being that state in

some cases, are they other land uses beside open space?

How do you capture the dialog?

The seven day process will be documented in film and video through aerial photography

and audience submitted video.

BLOSSOM

STEP ONE

Blossoms are packed in nets that will be placed in the

negative spaces provided by the towers

STEP TWO

In series, the flower blossoms are released from the towers

from the North to the South.

STEP THREE

Remarking the original footprint of the proposed highway

and connecting the disparate islands together, the blossoms

unify the communities surrounding the corridor.

HERD

STEP ONE

Clusters of prism structures that house the herd will be placed in

the negative spaces provided by the towers

STEP TWO

A herd of metal sculptures emerge from the towers,

becoming performance spaces for dancers to interact with.

STEP THREE

Starting from two locations, the herd migrates in both

directions each subsequent night to be accessible to the

communities surrounding the corridor.

CLOUD

STEP ONE

Deflated structures that house lights activated by the area

electromagnetic fields will be placed in the open field provided

by the towers.

STEP TWO

A parade of balloons held by neighbors fills the park-

STEP THREE

The parade of blimps become an Electro Magical Field of lights

floating below the power lines in a state of constant anxiety.

THANK YOU !!!